‘I was a member that fired her for alleged overbilling and bias’: Gurpreet Dhillon says IC Muneeza Sheikh is in a conflict, demands withdrawn allegations be expunged

A day after Brampton’s controversial Integrity Commissioner Muneeza Sheikh broke her silence three years since sexual assault allegations against former councillor Gupreet Dhillon were apparently withdrawn, he is levelling his own accusations against her. 

Sheikh brought forward a widely scrutinized investigation report in 2020, after failing to follow proper procedure when she launched a probe into accusations against Dhillon made by a Brampton businesswoman to Mayor Patrick Brown. 

“The IC is in a clear conflict of interest as I was a member of the previous Council that fired her for alleged overbilling and bias,” Dhillon wrote in an explosive statement to The Pointer Thursday, a day after Sheikh finally addressed the reportedly withdrawn allegations at Brampton City Council on Wednesday, three years after the City’s legal department was first informed that the accusations had been recanted. “It is improper for her to be involved as she has a clear bias against me.”

In April 2024, The Pointer obtained a memo written by the City’s head lawyer at the time, sent to all members of council. They were informed that in October the previous year, Brampton’s legal office had received a letter written by the woman, withdrawing all allegations against Dhillon, whose lawyers had forwarded the letter and his demands that Sheikh’s report be expunged and that a formal apology be issued to clear his name. 

Brampton’s controversial integrity commissioner Muneeza Sheikh appears by video at the council meeting on Wednesday May 6, 2026.

(Alexis Wright/The Pointer)

After months of inaction, Dhillon threatened a $5 million lawsuit in early 2024, prompting the memo from the City’s head lawyer to council members, who had not been informed of the withdrawn allegations the previous year.

Recently, alarming details of the letter reportedly written by the woman were revealed and Dhillon confirmed them in a statement to The Pointer last week. She alleged being coached and coerced to make the false accusations and that “misinformation” was used by “people who were not genuine with their intentions.”

After Dhillon again demanded action to clear his name, Sheikh made a presentation by video to council Wednesday, claiming she had not been able to verify the content of the letter and that she was not able to get in touch with the woman despite her efforts to do so.

“What I have is an unredacted note that is allegedly from the complainant, although this has never been confirmed to me by the complainant or her counsel, only by counsel for Mr. Dhillon,” Sheikh claimed.

Dhillon refutes this.

“The IC claims that she cannot correct her report because she is unable to confirm the authenticity of the retraction letter. The fact that this letter was provided to me and Brampton City Council by the complainant’s lawyer means that it is verified in and of itself.”

Dhillon continues.

“According to professional obligations and Law Society standard practices, lawyers verify their clients to validate identity and it is unthinkable that a legal professional would not do so.”

Dhillon says the City’s lawyers and other senior staff can easily verify the chain of communication when the retraction letter was sent. 

“The retraction letter can be verified by the email chain originating from the complainant’s lawyer and includes my counsel and the City Solicitor's Office. The IC has had the ability to access the complete and unredacted information since the beginning of the process—she’s been privy to all emails from the complainant’s lawyer to the City Solicitor’s office in unredacted form.”

Dhillon told The Pointer he fears Sheikh is now trying to avoid taking action to clear his name.

“Regardless of the IC’s attempt to contact the complainant in the present day, the IC does not need contemporary confirmation for verification as it comes directly from the fact that the retraction letter was delivered through the complainant’s lawyer. It is irrelevant that the IC is unable to contact the complainant in the present day. Although the IC states she is not in a position to make a recommendation to Brampton City Council about the report because she cannot verify the retraction letter, she is intentionally evading the fact that there is clear verification available.”

Sheikh did not explain on Wednesday why she had not simply asked the lawyer who was representing the woman at the time to verify that her client withdrew the allegations.

“At no time did the IC mention during her presentation or discussion afterwards to the City Council that the complainant’s lawyer denied the authenticity of the letter. She simply stated that the complainant and him haven’t spoken,” Dhillon wrote, referring to Sheikh’s comments at council Wednesday when she acknowledged contacting the woman’s lawyer, who suggested, according to Sheikh, that there had been no communication with the complainant this year or last year. Sheikh mentioned nothing about asking the lawyer if there was communication in 2023, when the retraction letter was forwarded to the City of Brampton by Dhillon’s lawyer after receiving it from the woman’s lawyer, according to Dhillon. 

Former Brampton councillor Gurpreet Dhillon has denied allegations against him from the beginning. They were later withdrawn and since 2023 he has demanded The City of Brampton and Integrity Commissioner Muneeza Sheikh clear his name. They have not done so.

(The Pointer Files/Alexis Wright)

The Pointer asked Sheikh why on Wednesday she did not address whether or not she asked the woman’s lawyer to verify his involvement with the sending of the letter in 2023 and to verify his former client’s withdrawn accusations. She did not respond. 

“By adopting the position that the retraction letter has not been confirmed when it is right in front of her, the IC is misleading Brampton City Council,” Dhillon says. Sheikh also has not explained why she is only addressing the retraction letter now, two-and-a-half-years after it was received by The City of Brampton, and two years after Dhillon threatened a $5 million lawsuit if her report was not immediately expunged.

According to Sheikh, she was first made aware of the withdrawn allegations in July of 2024. This is despite the City of Brampton being made aware of the withdrawal in September or October of 2023. Neither the City nor Sheikh responded to questions about the timeline. 

Since July of 2024, according to Sheikh, she has tried to reach the woman using her previous contact information, online searches and through her legal counsel, without success. 

“I have really done everything in my power to try and see, first, on a very preliminary and superficial basis, to see if the letter that was presented to council in September of 2023 actually was from the complainant, and for the better part of three years I have been unsuccessful in doing so,” she told council members Wednesday. “If I was able to connect with the complainant I would be happy to revisit my report, if in fact that’s appropriate.” 

Patrick Brown repeatedly attacked Gurpreet Dhillon in 2022 ahead of the municipal election, and has not issued any apology since allegations against the former Brampton councillor were apparently withdrawn in 2023. Brown still faces accusations by two young women that he committed rape and attempted rape. He denies the allegations. 

(Alexis Wright/The Pointer)

Brown and Sheikh have been heavily criticized for her original hiring as the city’s integrity commissioner following his 2018 election. They had personal and professional connections and governance critics said that should have disqualified her from the job. She had never worked in municipal law and had never served as an integrity commissioner.

Dhillon has maintained his innocence from the beginning, following a 2019 Brampton trade mission to Turkey, which the woman who previously accused him of assault also attended. Sheikh’s investigation report, which carries no legal standing and is not part of a court process, was only allowed to address the City’s Code of Conduct, the only set of rules a municipal integrity commissioner deals with. 

She concluded, despite Dhillon’s denials, that the assault did take place during the trip and on her recommendation Council, led by Brown, suspended him without pay for 90 days in 2020 for allegedly violating the Code that governs council behaviour.

In 2022, when Dhillon was part of a majority group of six councillors who launched a sweeping set of forensic investigations into Brown’s conduct as mayor, which included a probe into how Sheikh was hired, the same group of councillors fired her after complaints of her alleged bias in favour of Brown when she exonerated him despite clear violations of rules when he opened up a city hockey arena during the pandemic for his personal use. They also questioned her excessive billing which Brampton taxpayers were forced to pay. She threatened a lawsuit against each of the six members, including Dhillon.

Brown took advantage of councillor absences in August of 2022 to call a snap council meeting and cancel the forensic investigations, including the probe into how Sheikh was hired under his leadership despite their connections and her lack of any relevant experience.

When Brown was reelected later in 2022 and most of his former council opponents did not return, including Dhillon who was narrowly defeated in that year’s election following Brown’s repeated attacks accusing him of sexual assault, the controversial mayor rehired Sheikh shortly after.

Dhillon says his involvement in the decision to fire her, after it was revealed that Sheikh had billed seven times what previous integrity commissioners had charged the taxpayers of Brampton, and her subsequent lawsuit threat against him, should disqualify her from dealing with the withdrawn assault allegations.

“She asserts that her hands remain tied with regard to expunging the report. However, she is choosing to overlook the clear evidence before her.” 

City legal staff and Sheikh appear to be in disagreement over who is responsible for expunging her 2020 report. 

The apparently withdrawn allegations stem from a 2019 City trade mission to Turkey where the woman claimed Dhillon sexually assaulted her in her hotel room. Dhillon denied the allegations from the very beginning. 

Peel police confirmed to The Pointer previously that no investigation was launched and Dhillon never faced charges. He has said police never contacted him about the since withdrawn accusations.

In late 2019, Sheikh launched her investigation into the allegations after a phone call from Mayor Brown, who first spoke with the complainant over the phone when she returned from Turkey, then met with her at her Brampton salon along with Brown’s chief of staff and his director of communications at the time. 

In her final report Sheikh claimed evidence that has since been withdrawn by the woman, proved Dhillon’s guilt, and she recommended the maximum penalty against the former councillor for violating the City’s Code of Conduct.

In September 2023, Dhillon’s lawyer forwarded the letter received from the woman's lawyer to the City’s legal department. In it, she withdraws her false allegations and explains why she made them. 

“I now realise that my accusations were misguided. I have come to realise that my memory of the events in question may have been clouded by a number of factors including emotional distress, misinformation and coercion from people who were not genuine with their intentions,” the letter, according to recent reporting and verified by Dhillon, explains. 

Dhillon demanded the City expunge the report from its website. It remains publicly available. City of Brampton officials did not respond to a request for comment. 

A recent letter sent to the City of Brampton from Denise Cooney, a lawyer representing Sheikh, claims, “Ms. Sheikh does not have authority to ‘expunge’ the Report.” This is the opposite of what Sameer Akhtar, who was the City’s head solicitor and is now reportedly on leave, told council members in 2024 when Dhillon repeated his request to have the report removed and threatened legal action. According to a memo from Akhtar, obtained by The Pointer that April, he claimed Dhillon’s request to expunge the report is a matter for Sheikh to deal with, not the City. 

During her brief appearance before council on Wednesday, May 6, to address Dhillon’s latest request to have the report removed, Sheikh outlined the steps she had taken to “authenticate” the September 2023 letter the woman wrote withdrawing the allegations. But she did not explain why she didn’t simply ask the woman’s lawyer to verify that she had withdrawn all her accusations.

Sheikh also took aim at statements made by Dhillon, who last week told The Pointer the woman acknowledged she had been “coached and coerced into making false allegations”, which was confirmed in reporting by Global News, which detailed the contents of the woman’s letter after reviewing it.

“The comments reported in the media that there is somehow some collusion between myself, perhaps the city solicitor, and that I am intentionally not doing anything with this report is not only inherently false, but it’s wildly offensive,” Sheikh said. 

Dhillon has maintained since Sheikh launched her investigation in late 2019 that it was a flawed process. 

Dhillon released a public statement following the release of Sheikh’s report: “I maintain that the report was issued without jurisdiction and after an unfair process, which included a relationship between the Mayor and the Integrity Commissioner, and direct political interference by the Mayor and his staff. I will be exploring all my legal options.” 

Sheikh and Patrick Brown have been criticized for her hiring after he took office in 2018. While he was leader of the Ontario PC Party her husband had done work for Brown, the two had appeared on stage at an event together and he used an image of them together in his campaign material. When allegations of rape and attempted rape were made against Brown by two young women in 2018, Sheikh publicly spoke positively of his leadership in defence of the embattled politician. Brown denies the allegations. 

Sheikh and Mayor Brown did not respond to questions this week.

The Pointer has asked Mayor Patrick Brown multiple times since Integrity Commissioner Muneeza Sheikh’s report was released in 2020, why he did not immediately tell the woman to contact the police herself, instead of inserting himself into the handling of allegations of sexual assault. He has not responded and has refused to explain why he met with the woman personally, face to face, which could be seen as interference.

(Alexis Wright/The Pointer)

Dhillon has for years questioned the way Sheikh handled her investigation into the since withdrawn allegations, and Brown’s involvement.

In her integrity commissioner investigation report, Sheikh detailed Brown’s involvement with the woman who had accused Dhillon.

“My investigation was triggered in response to a phone call I received from Mayor Brown's office regarding purported misconduct by Councillor Dhillon in November 2019,” Sheikh wrote in her report, which is still publicly available on the City of Brampton website. 

“To be specific, Mayor Brown informed me over a phone call on November 27, 2019 that the Complainant had reached out to him regarding an allegation of sexual assault and harassment. The allegation was that Councillor Dhillon had sexually assaulted/harassed the Complainant while they were in her hotel room in Turkey earlier that month. Mayor Brown did not state his intention to file a complaint against Councillor Dhillon, but only to provide me with a summary of what had taken place during his conversation with the Complainant.”

Sheikh continued, reporting that Brown stepped up his involvement in the matter: “Mayor Brown told me that he, Babu Nagalingam ("Mr. Nagalingam") (the Mayor's Chief of Staff), and Mr. Collins [Brown’s former director of communications] met with the Complainant at her hair salon in Brampton on November 20, 2019,” shortly after she had returned from the Turkey trade mission.

“Mayor Brown also contacted the Regional Chief of Police for Peel, Nish Duraiappah, to advise him both of the conversation that he had with the Complainant and of her intention to contact him regarding her allegations against Councillor Dhillon,” Sheikh wrote in her report.

The Pointer has asked Brown multiple times since Sheikh’s report was released in 2020, why he did not immediately tell the woman to contact the police herself, instead of inserting himself into the handling of allegations of sexual assault. He has not responded and has refused to explain why he met with the woman personally, face to face, which could be seen as interference.

Sheikh acknowledged it was Brown who triggered her investigation into Dhillon, not the woman: “While Mayor Brown did not file an official formal complaint against Councillor Dhillon, I exercised my own discretion to treat it as a complaint that required at least a preliminary investigation so that I could better understand what happened in Turkey.” 

She launched the investigation after speaking with Brown and despite no complaint from the woman. The City of Brampton’s rules were clear: the integrity commissioner can only initiate an investigation after a complainant has filed a formal Code of Conduct complaint themself to the integrity commissioner’s office. This was not done when Sheikh received the call from Brown and began probing the accusations which had been communicated by the mayor.

During the council meeting Wednesday, Brown asked Sheikh about a 2020 judicial review of her report, which Dhillon requested. 

When asked by Brown what the result of that review was, Sheikh replied that the report was “upheld”. 

This is misleading.

The three judge panel that conducted the review dealt with her procedural errors, finding that though Sheikh did not follow rules regarding the complaint process Brampton’s integrity commissioner is supposed to follow, she was justified in moving forward with her investigation into the allegations. 

The review did not deal with the substance of Sheikh’s report, or the sexual assault allegations themselves, only whether Sheikh was justified in investigating them in the first place. The three judge panel made no determination on her conclusion of Dhillon’s guilt. 

It’s unclear what will happen with Sheikh’s publicly available report. City Council made no motions or recommendations following Sheikh’s delegation Wednesday. Sheikh left it in the hands of council. 

“My hands remained tied today, although members of council can of course do as they wish,” she said. 

“Absent confirmation from the complainant herself or counsel for the complainant, that there was indeed an error, or that she reneges on the allegations, I am unable to reopen the investigation or suggest anything with the report.”

Dhillon says action has to be taken.

“Again, the Integrity Commissioner and Brampton City Council are refusing to clear my name. Through willful misrepresentation, both parties are deliberately acting in ways that continue to harm my reputation.

“In regards to the IC presentation to Brampton City Council on May 6th, there were a number of inconsistencies and misinformation…”.

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