Born and raised in Manitoba, Gerhard Ens is Associate Professor of History and Classics at the University of Alberta in Edmonton. He has spent his professional career researching and writing about the fur trade, the Métis, and First Nations communities in Canada. In recent years he has also worked as a consultant and testified as an expert witness in various Métis and Indigenous Title and Treaty Rights court cases.

"Johnny Grant was one of those legendary frontiersman who lived large and unapologetically, amassing his fortune on gut instinct, guile and charm. Born at Fort Edmonton in 1833, the Métis land speculator and rancher had an affinity for adventure and seduction. In the course of his life he managed to sire 28 children by at least six women. He tells in his memoir, 'I may reflect here that about this part of my nature, this great fondness for women which has followed me through life, that it has brought me very close to trouble at times, but I always got out of it without any serious consequences.'" Geoff McMaster, Express News, University of Alberta, December 10, 2008