Kaleed Rasheed responds to a question during a press conference at Queen's Park in Toronto on Sept. 1, 2021. Ontario's Official Opposition has filed a request to the integrity commissioner to probe the relationship between former senior members of the premier's office and a prominent developer whose land was removed from the protected Greenbelt.Tijana Martin/The Canadian Press
Ontario NDP Leader Marit Stiles is asking the province’s Integrity Commissioner to investigate whether Kaleed Rasheed, a former provincial cabinet minister, broke the law on a trip to Las Vegas with two now-former senior aides to Premier Doug Ford, during which the trio said they encountered a prominent Toronto-area real estate developer.
The Opposition Leader released a formal complaint she had sent Wednesday to Integrity Commissioner J. David Wake, asking him to look into the 2020 vacation, which Mr. Rasheed took with Amin Massoudi, then Mr. Ford’s principal secretary, and Jae Truesdell, who would later serve as the Premier’s housing adviser. The three men said they ran into Shakir Rehmatullah, founder of Flato Developments, during the trip.
The trip was mentioned by Ontario’s Integrity Commissioner in a report earlier this year that concluded a senior political staffer had driven a “chaotic” process to open up properties for housing development in the province’s environmentally protected Greenbelt – a decision the Ford government has since reversed. The plan would have handed a small group of favoured developers, including Mr. Rehmatullah, a collective $8.3-billion in increased property values, according to an Auditor-General’s report released this summer. The land swaps are under investigation by the RCMP.
Mr. Rasheed acknowledged last month that he had provided incorrect information to the Integrity Commissioner about the dates of the vacation. He resigned both his post as minister of public and business service delivery and his place in the Progressive Conservative caucus. He remains an MPP.
Ms. Stiles’s complaint asks the Integrity Commissioner to determine if Mr. Rasheed, who was not in cabinet at the time of the trip, broke the Members’ Integrity Act, the law that governs MPPs.
“We believe that what happened in Vegas should not stay in Vegas,” Ms. Stiles told reporters at Queen’s Park.
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The NDP Leader’s complaint points to reporting by The Trillium, an online news outlet that covers Queen’s Park, which said earlier this year that the Las Vegas trip had occurred in late January to early February, 2020 – not December, 2019, as Mr. Rasheed had first told the Integrity Commissioner under oath. The complaint says Mr. Massoudi and Mr. Truesdell also corrected the dates they had provided.
Mr. Rasheed had told the Integrity Commissioner that his only interaction in Las Vegas with Mr. Rehmatullah – a lifelong friend who employs Mr. Rasheed’s wife – was an encounter in the lobby of the Wynn Las Vegas hotel. But CTV later reported that the three men had received massages at the hotel’s spa at the same time, the complaint says.
The NDP document also raises questions about what it says are “inconsistent statements” to the Integrity Commissioner about how the trip was paid for, including $4,550 in cash payments for flights made by the former minister, and contradictory information about how his travel companions reimbursed him.
Ontario Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister Paul Calandra said the government would co-operate if the Integrity Commissioner were to launch a new investigation.
Joseph Markson, Mr. Rasheed’s lawyer, said in a statement that the former minister welcomes an investigation by the Integrity Commissioner and would fully co-operate to clear the record and his name of any wrongdoing.
“It has been disheartening for Mr. Rasheed to witness the facts of this matter be distorted for political gain. Mr. Rasheed has submitted additional records to the Integrity Commissioner and looks forward to dispelling any allegations of misconduct in a timely manner, so he can return to government and continue to serve the people of Ontario,” the statement said.
One of the issues Ms. Stiles raised was a finding in the Integrity Commissioner’s report that Mr. Massoudi had not paid Mr. Rasheed back for his flight until November, 2022, nearly three years after the trip. But the Integrity Commissioner’s office said Wednesday that this was a typographical error, and that Mr. Massoudi had produced a bank statement showing he withdrew $1,264.63 in cash in November, 2019 – money he says he used to reimburse Mr. Rasheed.
Mr. Massoudi addressed the confusion about the date of the trip in a statement, saying it was originally booked for December, 2019, but was rescheduled to the following month.
“I had initially based my recollection on the original travel itinerary. I have since sought to clarify this mistake with the Integrity Commissioner’s Office,” Mr. Massoudi said.
Neither Mr. Truesdell nor Mr. Rehmatullah responded to requests for comment.
In an e-mail, Michelle Renaud, a spokesperson for Mr. Wake, the Integrity Commissioner, said Ms. Stiles’s request for an investigation would be reviewed. But she added that the commissioner’s rules require him to suspend inquiries into subjects facing police investigations or charges.
Editor’s note: A previous version of this story stated incorrectly that Kaleed Rasheed’s was in cabinet during the Las Vegas trip. This version has been updated.