“For First Nations, Métis Nations and Inuit peoples in Canada, these early colonial relationships were not about strength through diversity, or a celebration of differences,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced at the 72nd Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations on 21 September 2017. “For Indigenous peoples in Canada, the experience was mostly one of humiliation, neglect and abuse.” His words acknowledge the many centuries of systemic maltreatment of Indigenous men, women, and children that hindered the development of Indigenous voices in Canadian fiction.