Ontario’s ethics watchdog has ended an investigation into a former Progressive Conservative MPP forced from Premier Doug Ford’s cabinet and caucus after the Greenbelt scandal.Ìý
As , integrity commissioner Cathryn Motherwell has told Kaleed Rasheed “that the matter was closed.”
Rasheed, who declined to comment Tuesday, has always maintained he made “an honest mistake” when he gave then-integrity commissioner J. David Wake wrong information about a 2020 trip to Las Vegas with top aides to Ford and a Greenbelt landowner.
That jaunt — with developer Shakir Rehmatullah and top Tory advisers Amin Massoudi and Jae Truesdell — led to the public and business service delivery minister being ejected from cabinet and defenestrated from the PC caucus in September 2023.
The following month, NDP Leader Marit Stiles asked the ethics czar to rule on whether Rasheed contravened the Members’ Integrity Act by going to Las Vegas.
“As you know, the Act restricts the integrity commissioner from conducting an inquiry into a matter if the subject-matter of the inquiry is being investigated by police,” said Motherwell’s spokesperson Michelle Renaud.
“Given that an RCMP investigation could overlap with the subject matter of, and individuals named in, the request by Ms. Stiles, the request was being held in abeyance,” said Renaud.
“There is also a provision in the Act that requires that the commissioner suspend any inquiry with the issuance of the writ for a general election,” she added, referring to the Feb. 27 vote in which Rasheed did not seek re-election in Mississauga East-Cooksville.
“If an inquiry is suspended because of an election, the Act requires that either the member who made the request or the member (or former member) whose conduct is the subject of the request submit a written request to the commissioner within 30 days after polling day if they would like the inquiry to be continued,” said Renaud.
“As no request was received within the 30-day time frame, the commissioner informed the parties involved and the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly that the matter was closed and that no report will be provided under the Act.”
Stiles, for her part, said the New Democrats are more focused on the “multiple investigations already underway and we want to see what the outcomes of those are.”
A source close to the situation, speaking confidentially in order to discuss internal deliberations, said the former MPP felt “exonerated” by the decision, noting the ex-minister wasn’t in Ford’s cabinet at the time of the Vegas trip and had nothing to do with the premier’s controversial 2022 decision to remove 7,400 acres of environmentally sensitive land from the Greenbelt.
The Tories backed off the land-swap scheme in September 2023, one month before the RCMP launched its ongoing criminal probe of the imbroglio.
In his August 2023 report on the Greenbelt scandal, Wake — who was succeeded by Motherwell three weeks ago — said Rehmatullah attended the wedding of one of Ford’s daughters and “more likely than not” knew of the government’s plans to rezone the land.
Wake wrote Rasheed was “close friends” with the developer and claimed he was “shocked” to see him in Las Vegas around Dec. 7, 2019, when they allegedly bumped into each other in the Wynn hotel.
It later emerged the trip was in fact postponed until Jan. 30, 2020 and that Rasheed, Massoudi and Rehmatullah had massages together in the hotel spa on Feb 1.
Rehmatullah, who owned stakes in two small parcels totalling about 23 acres removed from the Greenbelt near Markham and Whitchurch-Stouffville, has denied doing anything wrong.
Rasheed sat as an Independent tor his final year and a half as an MPPÂ because Ford’s office maintained he could not return to the Tory caucus until the integrity commissioner cleared him.
The two-term MPP was liked by his PC colleagues — when he returned to the legislature in April 2024 for the first time after his ouster he was greeted with handshakes and hugs from a dozen MPPs and cabinet ministers.
In August 2023, both WakeÌý²¹²Ô»åÌýthen-auditor general Bonnie Lysyk released separate reports revealing developers with Tory ties were “favoured” in opening up Greenbelt land to housing development.
Along with Rasheed, then-municipal affairs and housing minister Steve Clark left cabinet in September. Now the government house leader, Clark said Tuesday he has not been contacted by the Mounties.
Truesdell and Clark’s chief of staff Ryan Amato resigned from the government while Massoudi,ÌýFord’s most-trusted aide, left Queen’s Park in June 2022.
All have denied any wrongdoing.
Ford has maintained he did not know how the parcels of land were chosen to be removed from the Greenbelt and has expressed contrition over the fiasco.
“I’m very, very sorry.ÌýI made a promise to you that I wouldn’t touch the Greenbelt.ÌýI broke that promise,” the premier said when he reversed his decision in 2023.
The Star has reported that least 12 current and former Ford aides have been interviewed by detectives from the RCMP “O” Division’s Sensitive and International Investigations unit, the elite Ottawa-based branch that looks into political crimes and corruption.
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