Bradley Twin fires back at Alberta minister over hate-speech guidance to police

Bradley Twin, chair of the Lakeshore Regional Police Service commission, has written a pointed response to Alberta Public Safety Minister Mike Ellis's August 10 letter to police commissions across the province — a message Ellis sent after the provincial government clashed with Edmonton Police over the service's campaign encouraging residents to report potential hate speech.

Ellis wrote that "law enforcement should be focused on stopping violent crime, not policing opinions or 'hurt feelings.'" Twin, who is a member of Swan River First Nation, said the letter felt like a "slap in the face."

In his reply, Twin noted that Indigenous people have historical reasons to be skeptical of government overreach. "Minister, you will forgive me if Indigenous people do not require an extensive tutorial on the dangers of government overreach. We have something of a head start," he wrote.

Twin also pushed back on Ellis's characterization of what his officers actually do. The Lakeshore Regional Police Service, which serves four First Nations near Lesser Slave Lake — Driftpile, Sucker Creek, Swan River and Sawridge Nations — is funded for 24 officers and deals with an opioid and illicit drug crisis, organized crime, violence, repeat offenders, property crime, and addiction affecting families. "Our communities are dealing with an opioid and illicit drug crisis, organized criminal activity, violence, repeat offenders, property crime and families being devastated by addiction," Twin wrote. "I can therefore assure you that there is no dedicated 'hurt feelings unit' operating within Lakeshore Regional Police Service."

Twin told the Edmonton Journal his response was meant as satire and was not intended to attack the government, but to address what he saw as an unnecessary and unneeded letter sent to all commissions.

The Lakeshore Regional Police Service is one of three First Nations policing agencies in Alberta, alongside Tsuut'ina Nation Police Service and Blood Tribe Police Service. Twin has noted that the service struggles with recruitment and retention, partly because it is not classified as an essential service — a designation that would allow it to offer the same pension benefits as other officers. Both the Alberta government and the Assembly of First Nations have called on the federal government to extend essential services status to First Nations police services.