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Early on in his new book, Harold Johnson strikes an apologetic tone. He knows the theme of his book — alcohol use among aboriginals — will court controversy.

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But he cannot stay silent any longer.

“I’m about to drag this filthy, stinking subject out into the light,” he writes. “It is my hope that the light kills it.”

After almost 20 years as a lawyer, including eight as a Crown prosecutor, Johnson, a Cree from northern Saskatchewan, estimates a staggering 95 per cent of his criminal cases involve people who were intoxicated.

From his base in La Ronge, Johnson says he’s amazed how many people he’s met who have suffered a brain injury as a result of getting hit with a bat, board or rock during a drunken brawl. He’s grown tired of hearing domestic violence victims utter the phrase: “When he’s sober, he’s a good guy.”

And he’s become fed up standing next to graves of people who died from alcohol; he lost two brothers to drunk drivers.

It’s time, he says, for people to stop being afraid to talk about the issue.

“If a white person uses ‘Indian’ and ‘alcohol’ in the same sentence, they’re afraid of being called racist. If an Indian says ‘Indian’ and ‘alcohol’ in the same sentence, they’re afraid people are going to point at them and say, ‘Look it’s true, they are lazy, drunken Indians,’” he told the National Post.