Article by Rebel News staff.

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Newly released access to information records obtained by Rebel News reveal that Edmonton Mayor Andrew Knack acted as a conduit between the National Council of Canadian Muslims and Edmonton police leadership during the controversy over Chief Warren Driechel's professional development trip to Israel.

Guest host Sheila Gunn Reid walked through the documents on Thursday's edition of The Ezra Levant Show — and the picture they paint is one of two-tier treatment at city hall.

Chief Driechel travelled to Israel as part of a multi-city North American police delegation focused on emergency management, public safety, cybersecurity, and counterterrorism. The trip was professionally relevant: Edmonton has previously experienced an ISIS-inspired terrorist attack targeting city police.

More than two dozen organizations affiliated with the NCCM nevertheless demanded answers, apologies, and in some cases the chief's resignation.

According to the ATIP records, Mayor Knack's response was to treat those demands not as one voice among many, but as the authoritative starting point. In one email to the police chief and police commission chair, Knack wrote that “the best starting point for organizations to engage with is the letter sent by NCCM.”

Knack went further, describing the three questions raised in the NCCM-backed letter as “reasonable questions to be answered,” and offered his office's help coordinating a meeting — one that would be hosted and led by the NCCM itself.

“Sounds more like a struggle session,” Sheila remarked. Knack also recommended NCCM-connected individuals as sources of advice for police leadership.

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The same ATIP disclosure contains a message from the Jewish Federation of Edmonton defending Chief Driechel.

The organization warned that a small group of activists was targeting the chief solely because he travelled to Israel, raised concerns about rising antisemitism, and noted that anti-Israel activism was increasingly being used as a vehicle for radicalization and hostility toward Jewish people.

Sheila then asked the obvious question: did Mayor Knack give the Jewish Federation the same treatment? Did he tell police leadership their letter was the best starting point? Did he call their concerns reasonable? Did he offer to coordinate meetings on their behalf? Did he recommend Jewish community leaders as advisers?

Four times over, the answer was “Not in the records,” she said.

Chief Driechel ultimately refused to apologize, defended the trip, and rejected the notion that activist groups should dictate where police leaders seek professional development.

“Good for him,” Sheila said. But the ATIP records, she argued, reveal that while the chief was standing his ground, his own mayor was working to undermine him.

“In a country experiencing record levels of antisemitic hate,” she said, “that's a story worth paying attention to.”