This is a moment, he realizes, when he could express his views on colonization to people on the other side of the equation, so to speak, but he can't think of anything to say that doesn't sound absurd under the circumstances—if he tells them he believes colonization to be abhorrent, surely the logical next question will be Then what are you doing here?
-- Edwin St. Andrew (Part 1, Chapter 6)

Importance: Edwin has been exiled to Canada by his wealthy English family after criticizing the British colonization of India at dinner, and in Caiette, he considers expressing these same views to a pair of Indigenous women he encounters. However, the author demonstrates that this would be hypocritical, since Edwin is currently staying on Indigenous land in Canada, which has been occupied and turned into a logging operation by white settlers.

This place is utterly neutral on the question of whether he lives or dies; it doesn't care...
-- Edwin St. Andrew (Part 1, Chapter 6)