RCMP have begun to interview witnesses related to the Green Belt scandal

By Pepper Parr

August 9^th, 2024

BURLINGTON, ON

Walking up those front entrance steps is not something the witnesses that the RCMP will be interviewing are looking forward.

While the Premier has said “we have nothing to hide” when he learned of the move on the part of the Mounties  (what did the public expect him to say ‘lie through your teeth and hope then ever figure it out?) it will be a WORD experience.  Hopefully the mounties will wear their uniforms and havbe the red serge jack on a hook behind the door and their hits on a table close by.

There won’t be much in the way of Spring in their steps as the witnesses walk into the RCMP detachment offices.

Those uniforms have a settling effect

Those uniforms have a settling effect when the guy you are facing is asking tough direct questions.  Will the witnesses have their lawyers with them?

First disclosed by the Star, current and former Progressive Conservative aides are sitting down with the Mounties to discuss Ford’s controversial 2022 decision to open up 7,400 acres of the two-million-acre Greenbelt to housing development.

Interviews with members of the RCMP “O” Division’s Sensitive and International Investigations unit, the elite Ottawa-based branch that probes political crimes and corruption, are being held at the force’s Greater Toronto Area detachment.

In a statement Friday, Ford’s office confirmed that aides and former staffers were being interviewed.

Doug Ford

Ford said: “We’ve always said we would co-operate.”   What else could he do?

The “cooperation” will include the premier and current or former staff conducting interviews as witnesses, which are currently underway,” the premier’s office said.

The RCMP would only “confirm that the investigation is ongoing.” Officials close to Ford said the premier has not yet been approached by the RCMP.

But sources say the RCMP appears to be currently focusing on potential witnesses rather than anyone actually suspected of wrongdoing.

The news came on the first anniversary of the auditor general’s explosive report into the land swap that ultimately triggered the police investigation.

Ford scrapped his Greenbelt land-swap scheme last Sept. 21 in the wake of an Aug. 9 report by then-auditor general Bonnie Lysyk that found developers connected to his Progressive Conservatives had been “favoured” in the government’s surprise move to allow houses to be built on the environmentally sensitive land.

Bonnie Lysyk wrote the report that put the story on the front page. Many forget that it was NDP leader Marit Stiles who asked that a report be produced

Ford scrapped his Greenbelt land-swap scheme last Sept. 21 in the wake of an Aug. 9 report by then-auditor general that found developers connected to his Progressive Conservatives had been “favoured” in the government’s surprise move to allow houses to be built on the environmentally sensitive land.

Lysyk, who told the Star this week she has not been contacted by the Mounties, said the rezoning ballooned the value of the 15 properties in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area to $8.28 billion.

Her 97-page report — and a subsequent review by integrity commissioner J. David Wake released on Aug. 30, 2023 — appear to be serving as guidebooks for the RCMP investigation.

J. David Wake

Some of the witnesses now being interviewed were named by Wake in his 166-page report.  He interviewed 62 people — most of whom were in the presence of their legal counsel — during the course of his review.

News that the RCMP investigation is heating up comes as Ford, whose Tories have a large lead in public opinion polls, has been considering an early election call next year instead of waiting for the scheduled June 2026 vote.

Bonnie Crombie, leader of the Provincial Liberal Party said Friday was “a sad day for the people of Ontario, who deserve and need so much more than a government embroiled in criminal investigation.”

“The people of this province need to know exactly how Doug Ford was involved in this scandal.”