The public has been banned from asking questions about the Edmonton police.
The board that oversees the police (the service that will cost you $530 million this year, more than any other service in the city) has prohibited public speakers for the rest of the year.
You can watch police commission meetings online, or write them a letter that they'll vet. But you cannot show up. You cannot use your voice. Public input is gone from the agenda.
Which is weird, because here's what it says on their website:
The Commission holds monthly public meetings to maintain transparency and accountability to the citizens of Edmonton.
Message received.
Personal attacks
The commission says that over several months, discourse has moved beyond legitimate criticism:
It has devolved into personal attacks, defamation, threats and intimidation directed at Commissioners, police service members, staff, and other members of the public.
What I've seen for the past several months is members of the public showing up to demand answers about the police chief's trip to Israel.
The commission has banned several of them from speaking until 2027, and had two speakers physically removed by peace officers in July. Now they've shut out all members of the public.
All of this over a trip to learn policing from the perpetrators of an active genocide.
Good enough!
The trip wasn't approved by the police commission in a public meeting. Chair Ben Henderson approved it himself, personally.
The approval process consisted of asking Chief Driechel if he thought the trip would be valuable. Here's Henderson:
I asked (Driechel) if he thought it was going to be valuable to go, and his feeling was it was going to be valuable. Based on that, I could see no reason to say no.
To CityNews
The chief said yes. Good enough!
This is the body that's supposed to hold police accountable on your behalf. When that oversight became a little bit uncomfortable, they didn't demand more accountability from EPS.
They removed the public.
Part 2 · Sep 4, 2026
Public speakers banned from the police commission: What's next?
Speakers are banned from police commission meetings. What can we do about it? Well, unfortunately, we're a bit limited. The law prevents council from acting - but you should absolutely tell them you…
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