Chair and Commissioners, 

My name is Stacey Leavitt Wright. I am the CEO of the Jewish Federation of Edmonton and a member of the Chiefs Community Council.

I want to begin by thanking this Commission for approving Chief Driechel’s professional development opportunity. International engagement by police leaders is routine, responsible, and necessary. Police chiefs around the world travel to exchange best practices, to learn from democratic counterparts, and to bring that knowledge home to keep their communities safer.

These trips almost never generate public controversy.

And yet, in this moment, Edmonton stands alone.

So I want to ask a very direct question—because accountability demands clarity.

Can anyone point to a single policing decision, a single policy, or a single action taken by Chief Driechel here in Edmonton that has caused demonstrable harm to a specific community related to this trip?

Not a destination.
Not an association.
Not a feeling.

A concrete, local, measurable harm.

Because if no such example exists—and none has been presented—then we need to be very honest about what this moment actually is.

This is not an accountability crisis.

This is a pressure campaign, dressed in the language of accountability.

And that distinction matters enormously.

If the position being advanced is that any professional contact with Israel—education, observation, exchange—is inherently tainted and therefore impermissible, then that is not an ethical standard.

It is a political boycott, enforced through employment consequences.

That is ideology masquerading as ethics.

And Edmonton’s Police Service should not be governed by boycott politics. No professional institution should.

Holding public officials to a fundamentally different standard solely because they engage with Israel is deeply troubling. It reflects a broader effort to single out and delegitimize one country in a way that is not applied to any other.

And when that country is the world’s only Jewish state, the implications for the Jewish community are impossible to ignore.

We are having these discussions at a time when Jewish communities across Canada are facing escalating threats—synagogue shootings, bomb threats, and a sharp rise in hate motivated incidents.

Canada’s own terrorism threat assessment agency, ITAC, has publicly stated that a violent extremist attack in Canada—including one targeting the Jewish community—remains a realistic possibility.

Right here in Edmonton, on December 19 Edmonton Police Service charged an Edmonton man following threats posted online against the Jewish community and on December 20, RCMP INSET arrested and charged a local resident for sharing extremist views and uttering threats against the Jewish community.

That is not abstract.
That is not elsewhere.
That is us.

The same ingredients that led to the Bondi massacre in Australia are present here in Canada.

And I would hope—I would expect—that our police service would pursue every legitimate opportunity to seek out the best practice responses to this escalating threat landscape.

I will sleep better at night knowing that when—not if—a mass casualty attack occurs, our Edmonton Police Service is prepared.

Today, I am honoured to bring voice to the Israeli and Jewish Edmontonians who stand with Chief Driechel. I am also heartened by the members of our community who have joined us here, including friends from other cultural backgrounds. Their presence speaks volumes about how deeply this issue matters.

And they are not alone.

Canadians from all backgrounds—Muslim, Druze, Iranian, African, Jewish, and many others—have reached out in solidarity.

Our open letter, co signed with Stop Hate Alberta, CMJ Canada, the Al Rayaan Society, Iranian Patriots YEG, the Royal Iranian Canadian Civic Legion, the Rwandan Community Abroad, and the Somaliland Cultural Association of Edmonton, is approaching 100,000 views, with thousands of reactions.

That coalition exists because people recognize something profoundly troubling unfolding here.

The normalization of anti-Israel sentiment among our civic leaders is a further cause for concern, especially in light of recent hate motivated attacks we have seen take place in Canada and around the world.

We wish to recognize the professionalism and integrity of Chief Driechel—who, like many public leaders, engages internationally to learn, to exchange ideas, and to strengthen the institutions he serves.

Efforts to demand that the Chief justify his professional education or resign are unacceptable.

And let me say this plainly:

He is being held to a standard that would never be applied if his destination had been anywhere other than Israel.

Edmonton—and Canada—can, and must, do better.

Thank you.