Edmonton Police Deleted Their Post After Alberta Pushed Back — But the Policy That Created It Is Still Running
Edmonton Police Service launched a social media campaign urging residents to report online 'hate' — including offensive jokes and calls for deportation. After a wall of backlash from across Alberta and Canada, they deleted the post. The portal it promoted, which explicitly categorizes reported behaviour as 'non-criminal,' is still live and still building files.
August 1, 2026 · By Justin Plosz · Edmonton, Alberta · Community · 7 min read read
What the Post Said — Before It Was Deleted
The Edmonton Police Service posted to X as part of their 'Hate Has No Home Here' campaign, directing followers to a portal at EdmontonPolice.ca/ReportHate where they could report hate-motivated incidents online. The screenshot above is the actual Facebook post from the Edmonton Police Service's official page, captured before the campaign content was removed from X.
The campaign messaging was straightforward on the surface: if you experience or witness hate, report it. The Edmonton Police have run anti-hate initiatives for years, and a significant portion of those efforts target genuine hate crimes — assaults motivated by race, religion, or sexual orientation — where police involvement is not only appropriate but necessary.
According to reporting by The Post Millennial, the specific post that ignited the backlash included language indicating that reportable conduct extended to things like calls for deportation and offensive jokes — items that, by the police service's own admission on their reporting portal, are not criminal.
The post was shared widely. The reaction was not positive. By the time the EPS removed it from X, it had already been screenshotted and distributed across platforms — the deletion doing nothing to contain the story, and arguably amplifying it.
Their Own Portal Calls It Non-Criminal. They're Still Building Files on It.
Here is the part that caused the deepest reaction — not among partisans, but among ordinary Albertans who read the EPS's own documentation carefully.
The Edmonton Police Service's Report Hate portal, at EdmontonPolice.ca/ReportHate, defines the conduct it is asking people to report. According to the EPS's own page, the incidents covered include verbal insults, name-calling, and offensive jokes — and the portal explicitly classifies these as non-criminal incidents, not crimes.
Critics argue that this distinction raises a serious civil liberties concern: the EPS has already determined that the behaviour in question does not constitute a crime under law, yet is still operating a portal — run by a police service — to collect reports of it. According to analysts covering the story, what happens with those reports is that a record is created and retained by the police service, even though no offence has been committed. This is not a criminal record or a charge — but it is a documented file held by law enforcement connecting a person's name to a reported incident of otherwise lawful conduct.
Independent commentary publication Fight for Canada described the dynamic this way: 'They have invented a category of lawful behaviour that generates a permanent file.' That characterization reflects the concern raised by civil liberties critics across Alberta: that the system creates police-held records for speech the law explicitly does not prohibit.
The UK Ran This Experiment First — and a Court Stopped It
The comparison being drawn most frequently by commentators is not to Canadian precedent. It's to the United Kingdom.
Britain implemented a formal 'Non-Crime Hate Incident' (NCHI) recording system in which police were directed to log reports of lawful speech as incidents — not crimes, but permanent records attached to an individual. The system was applied against a retired police officer named Harry Miller after he posted material about transgender policy on social media. According to published court records, officers contacted him at his workplace. He had committed no crime. A record had been created.
Miller took the case to the UK Court of Appeal. He won. The court ruled that the NCHI system had a 'chilling effect' on free expression and that the police conduct in his case was unlawful. The UK government was subsequently required to revise its hate incident guidance.
Alberta's political direction has been built in significant part on pushing back against federal policies that the province's government views as overreach — from carbon pricing to firearm legislation to the federal Online Harms Act — on the premise that free citizens should not face government consequence for speech the law does not prohibit. Edmonton Police Service is a municipal institution accountable to Edmonton city council. The city and the province have markedly different political priorities on these questions, and this campaign made that gap visible in a way that generated national media attention.
Deleting the Post Is Not a Retraction
The EPS removed their X post. As of publication, they have not retracted the underlying campaign, shut down the Report Hate portal, or issued a public statement addressing the concerns raised about the non-criminal reporting system.
Deleting a post after public backlash is a communications decision, not a policy change. The portal at EdmontonPolice.ca/ReportHate remains operational. The process by which a reported non-criminal incident generates a police record remains in place. The deleted post changes nothing about how the system works.
The Western Standard and The Post Millennial both covered the story with that specific framing: the social media post is gone, the policy remains. That is the accurate description of where things stand based on reporting as of August 2, 2026.
In the United Kingdom, it took a formal court ruling to change comparable police behaviour. In Alberta, public pressure appears to have produced a social media retreat — whether it produces a policy change depends on whether oversight bodies, including the Edmonton Police Commission and Edmonton city council, engage with the substance of the criticism.
What Albertans Are Saying
The reaction online — across X, Reddit, and conservative commentary platforms — has been consistent. The dominant response is not fringe or extreme; it is something closer to exhausted clarity from people who have followed federal speech regulation debates closely.
Common questions being raised publicly: Why is a police service asking citizens to report legal speech? Who authorized this program? What happens if I get reported for a joke? Is there already a file on me?
That last question matters practically. Under the EPS system as described on their own portal, a non-criminal report can generate a police record. The person reported may never be notified. Critics argue this is structurally incompatible with a free speech framework — you can be documented by police for conduct the police themselves have classified as lawful.
Alberta has legislated free expression protections through the Alberta Bill of Rights. Premier Danielle Smith's government has made protection of civil liberties and pushback against speech regulation a central policy position. In that context, a municipal police service operating a non-criminal speech reporting system represents a meaningful conflict with the political direction of the province — one that commentators across Alberta are now demanding be addressed through the EPS's oversight structure.
What You Can Actually Do About It
If you disagree with the Edmonton Police Service running a non-criminal speech reporting system, you are not without options. Here is what a normal person — not a lawyer, not a politician — can do right now.
**1. Contact the Edmonton Police Commission directly.**
The Edmonton Police Commission (EPC) is the civilian oversight body that sets EPS policy direction and holds the service accountable to the public. This is the most direct channel for feedback on an EPS program you believe is overreaching. You can reach the EPC by email or phone through their contact page. Note: as of December 1, 2025, formal complaints about individual officer conduct go through a separate provincial process — but policy concerns about programs like Report Hate go directly to the Commission.
**2. Contact your Edmonton city councillor.**
Edmonton City Council funds and oversees the EPS. Every Edmonton resident has a ward councillor who is elected to represent them. A volume of constituent emails on a specific issue gets noticed. Find your councillor and their contact information at the City of Edmonton's website using your home address. You don't need to be a lawyer — a short, clear message saying you oppose a police service building files on residents for non-criminal speech is sufficient.
**3. Contact your Alberta MLA.**
If you live anywhere in Alberta, your Member of the Legislative Assembly represents you in Edmonton. The conflict between EPS policy and the provincial government's civil liberties direction makes this a legitimate provincial issue. Find your MLA using the Elections Alberta search tool, which locates your representative by address. A brief email stating your concern is enough — MLAs track constituent correspondence on issues.
**4. Contact the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (JCCF).**
The JCCF is a Calgary-based registered legal charity that defends constitutional rights across Canada. If you believe you have been reported, filed, or investigated under a non-criminal hate reporting system, or if you have experienced a chilling effect on your expression as a result of knowing such a system exists, the JCCF offers a legal help intake process. They have successfully challenged government overreach in courts across the country.
**5. Talk about it.**
The EPS deleted their X post because enough people shared it and pushed back. That mechanism works. Sharing accurate, sourced coverage of the non-criminal reporting portal — particularly the fact that the EPS's own page uses the word 'non-criminal' — keeps the pressure on and makes it harder for the issue to quietly disappear.
Key takeaways
- Edmonton Police Service posted on X promoting a 'Report Hate' campaign that covered non-criminal conduct including offensive jokes and calls for deportation, then deleted the post after significant backlash.
- The Report Hate portal at EdmontonPolice.ca/ReportHate remains active and explicitly covers 'non-criminal' incidents — meaning police are building files on citizens for lawful speech.
- Critics have compared the EPS system to the UK's Non-Crime Hate Incident framework, which was ruled unlawful by the UK Court of Appeal for having a chilling effect on free expression.
- Deleting the post is not a retraction of the campaign — the infrastructure, the portal, and the file-generation process are unchanged by the social media deletion.
- The program sits in direct conflict with Alberta's provincial political direction under Premier Danielle Smith, which has centred on free expression, civil liberties, and pushback against federal speech regulation.
- No formal legal challenge to the EPS non-criminal reporting system has been filed in Alberta as of August 2026, but the UK court precedent provides a clear blueprint for one.
Frequently asked questions
- What did Edmonton Police post that caused the backlash?
- Edmonton Police Service posted on X promoting their 'Report Hate' campaign, including language indicating that conduct such as offensive jokes and calls for deportation could be reported to police. The post linked to a portal at EdmontonPolice.ca/ReportHate. After significant backlash from Albertans and national commentators, the post was deleted. The underlying reporting portal and campaign remain active.
- What is the Edmonton Police 'Report Hate' portal?
- The Report Hate portal at EdmontonPolice.ca/ReportHate allows members of the public to file reports on 'hate motivated incidents' online or in person. Critically, the Edmonton Police Service's own page describes the incidents covered as 'non-criminal' — meaning the reported conduct does not constitute a crime under Canadian law. Critics argue the portal creates police files on citizens for lawful speech, similar to the 'Non-Crime Hate Incident' system used in the United Kingdom.
- Did Edmonton Police cancel the Report Hate campaign?
- No. Edmonton Police Service deleted the specific X post that generated backlash, but the Report Hate portal and the broader campaign remain active. The deletion is a tactical social media retreat, not a policy change. As of August 1, 2026, members of the public can still submit reports through EdmontonPolice.ca/ReportHate, and those reports will still generate police records for non-criminal conduct.
- How does this compare to the UK's non-crime hate incident system?
- Britain's Non-Crime Hate Incident (NCHI) system directed police to log reports of lawful speech as permanent records attached to individuals. The system was challenged in court after police appeared at a retired officer's workplace following complaints about his social media posts about transgender policy. The UK Court of Appeal found the system had a chilling effect on free expression and was unlawful. Edmonton Police Service's Report Hate portal operates on a similar principle — recording non-criminal speech incidents as police files — raising the same constitutional and civil liberties concerns in the Canadian context.
- Is the Edmonton Police Report Hate program legal in Alberta?
- The legality of the Edmonton Police Service's non-criminal reporting system has not yet been tested in Canadian courts. Under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, Section 2(b) protects freedom of expression. Police building files on citizens for lawful speech raises potential Charter concerns, particularly given the UK court precedent that found a comparable system had a chilling effect on expression. Alberta's own Bill of Rights also protects free expression. No formal legal challenge has been filed against the EPS program as of August 2026.
- Why is Edmonton's political environment different from the rest of Alberta?
- Edmonton is governed by a city council that skews significantly to the left of Alberta's broader political mainstream. The province has twice elected the United Conservative Party under Jason Kenney and then Danielle Smith on platforms of provincial autonomy, reduced federal overreach, and protection of civil liberties. Edmonton's municipal government and its appointed institutions — including the Edmonton Police Commission — reflect a different political culture, which creates recurring friction with provincial priorities. The Report Hate campaign is the latest flashpoint in that ongoing tension.
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