It’s been nice, hasn’t it, going an entire year with no serious political controversies involving the Edmonton Police Service.
Enough time has gone by, in fact, to almost make one forget about the few years previous when city council, police leaders and various advocates seemed in a constant state of tension.
Thankfully, 2025 provided a much-needed reset on the relationships, with new leadership at the police commission, better restraint from city council and the hiring of a new police chief with fewer political overtones around him than his predecessor. The changes were substantial enough to have police relations essentially disappear as an issue during the civic election campaign.
Alas, it is hard to have nice things at a time when public safety is an increasingly complex and polarizing subject. Even in a relatively peaceful city like Edmonton, it was a sucker’s bet for anyone to assume that harmony would last.
Still, it’s a shame that the calm was broken by a travel decision that seems like it could’ve been easily avoided.
I’m sure EPS chief Warren Driechel had his reasons for going to Israel last month as part of a delegation of the Major Cities Chiefs Association. But until better answers come forward on the value of the trip, it’s hard to see why this was worth the negative firestorm it has predictably caused.
Since news of the trip was revealed by media — it’s unclear if EPS and police commission leaders ever planned to disclose it voluntarily — it has a produced a rebuke from the mayor, anger from the National Council of Canadian Muslims and others, and even calls for the chief’s resignation.
(Defences of the chief have also started to build, including a particularly aggressive one from the Edmonton Police Association, which now makes it more difficult for Driechel to offer contrition, should he wish to.)
Though Driechel is not the political veteran that predecessor Dale McFee was — nor do we necessarily want him to be — on some level he had to know going to Israel would be highly upsetting to several local communities, not to mention anyone rightly appalled by the Israeli government’s actions in recent years. For some, the trip has caused damage to an already fragile idea that police administer law enforcement equally, consistently and dispassionately.
Now to be fair, just because someone is upset with a decision is not sufficient reason to avoid a tough choice. People in positions of authority had never had that luxury, and especially not in these times.
In Driechel’s case, it is part of his job to talk with police leaders from other major cities, given that Edmonton is not immune to complex problems happening around the world.
Protests, civil unrest, threats of terrorism, radicalization and international organized crime are just some of the ways that global events spill over into the streets of a multicultural city like ours. I would also note there has been an alarming rise in anti-Semitism pretty much everywhere.
Israeli police undoubtedly have insights to share on at least some of these topics. That country has been through an awful lot, regardless of how many of us may view its responses.
However, while avoiding controversy should not be a top motivation for someone in Driechel’s position, it is equally true to say that it should at least be weighed against public benefit. In other words, the juice better be worth the squeeze.
And in this instance, there is minimal evidence, so far, to suggest that going to Israel meaningfully moves the needle in terms of strategic knowledge for EPS.
This is where Driechel and commission chairman Ben Henderson need to give better explanations: How was this approved and what consultation, if any, was done beforehand? Were there clear expectations for the trip, and did it live up those expectations? Was going to Israel absolutely essential or were there other ways to learn?
Maybe there are good answers to those queries, and, if so, the two men in question will have a chance to provide them at this week’s police commission meeting.
(Driechel issued a statement Tuesday providing a better glimpse of the trip’s activities, though more is needed. This included, he said, a chance to talk with Muslim community leaders in Israel, and conversations about “building trust in communities where there is little trust.” That’s good to hear but it seems counterproductive if the very effort you make to learn about building trust simultaneously weakens it back home.)
Moral high ground
All that said, I am not on board with calls for Driechel’s resignation, in part because this comes across — until proven otherwise — as a well-intentioned misstep rather than a moral failing.
Some will undoubtedly take a more binary view, since that is what political operatives, social media and others encourage us to do. But I would urge caution in claims of moral high ground because that tends to be a pretty brittle sanctuary, propped up by a lot of selective outrage and hypocrisy.
For starters, it should be said that Driechel’s decision to fly to Israel, while hardly a rebuke to the Benjamin Netanyahu government, does not prove the opposite. It does not mean the police chief tacitly supports all of Israel’s behaviour or that he is absent sympathy for those who have been wronged by its government.
The same could be said for one of Driechel’s critics, Mayor Andrew Knack, who recently came back from his own official trip of questionable value — this one to China.
“Decisions like these cause real hurt, damage relationships with communities that already feel marginalized, and break trust,” Knack said in a Friday social media post, not exactly mincing words.
The post was in reference to Driechel’s trip, but could those same sentiments apply at least a little to members of the local Uyghur, Taiwanese or Tibetan communities?
Prime Minister Mark Carney just got back from a trade mission that included some time in India with the Modi government. Canadians continue to take vacations to controversial places like Hungary and Cuba. Even the United States is not a consequence-free choice.
I get that people are going to put different types of trips to different places in different categories, but is there perhaps a sliver of a double standard being applied here?
Sometimes we have to deal with the world as it is, not as we idealize it.
With that in mind, I would suggest Driechel, Henderson, Knack and others use the coming weeks to engage in some serious relationship repair efforts — both with each other and with Edmonton’s Muslim communities. There will always be disagreements, but relations on policing broke down last time, in part, because various players abandoned respect and communication, and forgot who they were serving.
The last thing this city needs is to return to those debilitating tensions. As the world tries to divide us, we need our leaders more than ever to act like grownups.
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