During World War I the Canadians were the shock troops. In many historical cases, Canadians have been very proficient at killing, and doing what we have to in order to survive. But no one wants to acknowledge that fact.

As a fiction writer, of course, you need to take some leeway with certain aspects of history to make the story work.

We aren't the masters of the earth. We're the servants.

The beliefs of Native people are no less powerful or important just because they focus on a different "form of magic."

We all fight on two fronts, the one facing the enemy, the one facing what we do to the enemy.

Being a mixed-blood person of Ojibway and European ancestry, I always found that I only heard one side of the story - that was the conquerers' side, the side of the French Jesuit missionaries that came to live in what is now Ontario.

People will say that Canada, unlike America, was not birthed from violence. But I want to say, "What are you talking about?" It's just not true.