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The EPS-specific link, documented from access-to-information records

Original source: https://www.readtheorchard.org/p/scoop-edmonton-police-chief-visited Additional: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/edmonton-police-chief-warren-driechel-9.7135588 · https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/edmonton-mayor-police-chief-israel-trip-9.7128689 Retrieved: 2026-07-05 (Complements ../palestine-policing/knack-condemns-police-chief-israel-trip-2026.md with the FOI-sourced itinerary detail.)

DOCUMENTED FACT — the trip

EPS Chief Warren Driechel travelled to Israel February 15–23, 2026, on a delegation organized and funded by the Major Cities Chiefs Association (MCCA) (Salt Lake City-based; business-class Newark–Tel Aviv, Ritz-Carlton Herzliya). The trip was unilaterally approved by Edmonton Police Commission chair Ben Henderson without public discussion. The Orchard obtained the itinerary and internal EPS correspondence via access-to-information. Itinerary points (from the FOI records): - Feb 22 — Mabat 2000, the Old City command-and-control centre in occupied East Jerusalem: a network of thousands of CCTV cameras extracting biometric data from Palestinian residents; Amnesty International's May 2023 "Automated Apartheid" report describes this system. - Feb 23 — Beit Horon (West Bank settlement housing the Border Police's main training facility, Bahad Magav) and the Nitzani Oz checkpoint, where the delegation met Yamas (the undercover Judea & Samaria unit). That unit had, roughly three months earlier, killed two unarmed Palestinian men in Jenin after they surrendered — a killing UN High Commissioner Volker Türk called an "apparent summary execution." - Feb 21 — Qasr al-Yahud (Jordan Valley holy site).

DOCUMENTED FACT — what Driechel said

Post-trip he cited gaining "insight into policing under complex, rapidly evolving and extremely divisive conditions" and praised the Israeli police's "military origins," "discipline and readiness," and "exceptionally high level of integration" with security forces. Asked to apologize: "What can I be sorry for? I'll continue to work with the community on their concerns."

DOCUMENTED FACT — the response

The National Council of Canadian Muslims issued a March 11 open letter, signed by more than two dozen local organizations and mosques, calling for Driechel's resignation ("this decision has caused deep pain … particularly those with family directly impacted by the ongoing genocide"). The Jewish Federation of Edmonton circulated a counter-petition to "stand with Chief Driechel against the extremists." Mayor Andrew Knack publicly said he was "disappointed and frustrated" with the chief and with the commission chair for approving the trip (see the palestine-policing file for his verbatim statement).

This is a DOCUMENTED, EPS-specific node in the training/exchange pipeline: the head of Edmonton's police force flew (on a US police-chiefs' program) to study Israeli policing — including its facial-recognition surveillance of a colonized population and its undercover West-Bank units — and came home admiring their "integration" and "military origins." Paired with the Corsight pilot, it converts "deadly exchange" from a general campaign slogan into two checkable Edmonton facts.