The New Yorker magazine recently published a two-part article by Janet Malcolm in which the writer excoriates a brother scribe, Joe McGinniss, for what Malcolm views as base literary acts—specifically, doublecrossing the lead character in McGinniss’s 1983 nonfiction bestseller, Fatal Vision.

Most provincial lieutenant-governors spend their languid tenures mouthing benign governor-generalities, careful never to express a controversial opinion or quotable thought. British Columbia’s David See-Chai Lam, 65, the first Chinese-Canadian to occupy the viceregal office, is different.