A former member of Cabinet, a developer who attended the wedding of the Premier's daughter met while both were in Las Vegas. Cabinet Minister fibbed about the meeting

By Pepper Parr

September 21^st, 2023

BURLINGTON, ON

Drip, drip, drip.

There is most certainly more to come

First, the former Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing Steve Clark resigned.

Now Kaleed Rasheed, the former Minister of Public and Business Service Delivery of Ontario is sitting as an independent and no longer part of the  Progressive Conservative caucus.

Shakir Rehmatullah with Premier Doug Ford – the developer who attended the wedding of the Premier’s daughter.

Kaleed Rasheed, the former Minister of Public and Business Service Delivery

Rasheed’s office provided the wrong dates for a winter 2020 trip to Las Vegas, where he encountered his developer friend Shakir Rehmatullah — who attended the wedding of Ford’s daughter and who Wake believes was “more likely than not” tipped by someone to the government’s plans to remove lands from the Greenbelt.

Also on the trip were Ford’s principal secretary at the time, Amin Massoudi, and Jae Truesdell, now the premier’s director of housing policy, according to Wake’s probe.

Provincial Integrity Commissioner J. David Wake’s staff are clearly doing their homework and cross checking the information they have been given, under oath no less, and finding that the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth standard wasn’t met.

Is there more to come?  Bet on it

“Premier Ford and MPP Kaleed Rasheed have agreed that Mr. Rasheed would resign from cabinet and the Ontario PC caucus, effective immediately,” said a brief statement from the premier’s office.

 “If Mr. Rasheed can clear his name through the Office of the Integrity Commissioner, he will be provided an opportunity to return to caucus,” added the statement, saying a new minister of public and business service delivery will be appointed “in the coming days.”

There wasn’t much in the way of detail however a government insider speaking confidentially to discuss internal deliberations told the Toronto Star “we expect people to remember the month they took a trip.”

“There are generally a lot of questions not answered in light of what was said about what happened,” the insider added.

The public is still waiting for the RCMP to decide if any of the Greenbelt scandal warrants an investigation.

The provincial Legislature returns on Monday