"His novels remain powerful. But they were always the work of a talented outsider."
It's time to stop all of the fractious bloodline, race, tribalism, gender, religion identity nonsense.  It is all going too far and is going to divide us as Canadians.
If writing about a character of a different culture than the fiction writer is going to be considered appropriation and illegitimate, then I guess for example an Anglo-Saxon can't write about Italians or Spanish or French or Africans or Hungarians, or Brazilians or Asians., etc...  This would apply to all cultural, tribal, racial, religious, gender groups.
How narrow the perspective and restrictive the voice in fiction will become with these exceesive rules growing out of the oppressive authoritarian left that's enjoying the results of their new found power.