Three decades ago, Grant Dokis became the first Indigenous officer on Sudburys municipal police service.

But he was not content simply to serve and protect he carved out a role as an advocate for Indigenous people.

I realized I came to work for the community, says Dokis, who is from Dokis First Nation on the French River, and I wanted Sudbury to be seen as a leader in this relationship with our community.

To that end, Dokis helped establish several programs unique to Sudbury, including a locally developed Native sensitivity and awareness training course for new officers as well as an intercultural ride-along program to help recruit Indigenous youth for policing careers.

Dokiss advocacy is based on his own experiences of racism, both inside and outside the police station.

In the first part of my career, some of my co-workers used to call me Chief, he says. Rather than picking a fight with people he saw as teammates, Dokis chose to educate them instead.

The way I returned that comment is I would say, A chief is a well-respected leader in my First Nation community and I dont have that title, so would you mind calling me Grant?

They would be kind of surprised when I would give them that explanation. And you know what? It worked.

There were also difficult days when the criticism came from his own community.

Sometimes Id go to a Native family situation and Id be called an apple. An apple is a term that [means] you are red on the outside and white inside, because you wear a police uniform, he says.

So I got racism from my own people as well, but you had to deflect those words. Sometimes people say these things because theyre under duress.

We are all equal. We all have to live in the same community.

With the advice of Elders, Dokis tried to foster a greater understanding between the communities.

We are all equal. We all have to live in the same community, none of us is moving away, he says.

Dokis retired this spring after 30 years with the Sudbury police. He says one of the high points of a long career happened very recently, when the force hired a coordinator for the Aboriginal Women Violence Prevention Project. The new coordinator works three days a week out of the police station and two days a week out of the local Friendship Centre.

Fortunately, in Sudbury we dont have any missing Aboriginal women and our goal is to continue that [with] this program, where I had a part to play in it, Dokis says.

As an organization, Sudbury police is moving forward locally on such an important topic and the community is very supportive of this.