Ontario ethics watchdog closes Greenbelt-related inquiry
TORONTO – Ontario's integrity commissioner has closed a Greenbelt-related investigation into former cabinet minister Kaleed Rasheed.
NDP Leader Marit Stiles had asked the commissioner in October 2023 to examine a 2020 trip to Las Vegas that included Rasheed, Doug Ford's then-principal secretary Amin Massoudi, and developer Shakir Rehmatullah, who stood to benefit from Ford's now-reversed plan to remove land from the Greenbelt for housing.
Rasheed, Massoudi and Jae Truesdell — who was in the private sector at the time but served as Ford's director of housing policy starting in January 2022 — initially told the integrity commissioner they 'briefly' encountered Rehmatullah on a trip to Las Vegas in 2019. Former Progressive Conservative MPP Kaleed Rasheed responds to a question at Queen's Park in Toronto, Wednesday, Sept. 1, 2021. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Tijana Martin
They later said the trip occurred in 2020 after reports from The Trillium and CTV called Rasheed's timeline into question, and Rasheed has said it was an honest mistake.
A spokesperson for Integrity Commissioner Cathryn Motherwell says the office is required to suspend any inquiry when an election is called.
A probe can resume if the original requester asks for a restart within 30 days after an election, but the spokesperson says that did not happen.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 6, 2025.
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