Crown wants 28-year sentence for Cameron Ortis, ex-RCMP intelligence official guilty of leaking secrets

Arguing it’s a fitting punishment for someone who betrayed his country, the Crown today called for Cameron Ortis — the former RCMP intelligence official found guilty late last year of leaking secret information to police targets — to be sentenced to nearly 30 years behind bars.

Crown prosecutor Judy Kliewer told an Ottawa courtroom Thursday morning that two consecutive sentences totalling 28 years in prison is “not only an appropriate but a necessary sentence.

“His conduct betrayed the RCMP. It betrayed the Five Eyes,” she said, referring to Canada’s international intelligence partners.

“It jeopardized the safety of Canadians because his conduct put at risk the ability of Canada to keep receiving information it needs to keep Canadian interests safe, protect national security.”

The defence submitted that Ortis, who does not have a criminal record, shouldn’t serve another day in custody.

In November, Ortis was found guilty on all six charges against him, including violating Canada’s secrets act.

Crown prosecutors successfully argued that Ortis used his position within the RCMP — leading a unit that had access to Canadian and allied intelligence — to leak sensitive information to police targets in early 2015.

The jury found Ortis guilty of leaking special operational information “without authority” to Phantom Secure CEO Vincent Ramos — who sold encrypted cellphones to organized crime members — and Salim Henareh and Muhammad Ashraf, two men police suspected of being agents of an international money-laundering network with ties to terrorists. 

The 51-year-old also was found guilty of trying to leak information to Farzam Mehdizadeh. One RCMP witness told Ortis’s trial he believes Mehdizadeh worked with “the most important money launderers in the world.”

“When someone takes your information that you shared and uses it to pass it on to the target you’re working to undermine, that’s a very serious breach of trust,” said Kliewer.

The Crown argued Ortis should serve consecutive sentences — one 14-year sentence for communicating with Ramos and one 14-year sentence for sharing information with the money-laundering targets. The jury also found Ortis guilty of breach of trust and unauthorized use of a computer; Kliewer suggested those sentences could be served concurrently. 

The Crown also argued that if the judge decides 28 years is too long, a sentence of 22 to 25 years, minus time served, would be “proportionate.”

“This is not someone who didn’t know exactly what he was doing and exactly what the consequences would be,” she said.

The Crown side said Ortis should be credited five years and four months for time already served behind bars.

As a member of the Five Eyes alliance with the U.S., the U.K., New Zealand and Australia, Canada has committed to sharing and protecting pooled intelligence.

Kliewer argued that a more lenient sentence would send a signal to allies that Canada can’t protect their sensitive information.

“If the consequence imposed today is not significant, that promise to our partners is hollow,” she said.

She also urged the judge to consider the fact that Ortis proactively offered Ramos information that the Crown said could have endangered the life of an undercover RCMP officer who had attempted to infiltrate Phantom Secure.

“Egregious,” said Kliewer.

Defence argues for no more time served

The defence, meanwhile, argued that the former civilian member of the RCMP should simply be sentenced to the time he has served since his 2019 arrest.

Defence lawyer Jon Doody began his arguments Thursday afternoon by suggesting Ortis endured hardships during his three years in custody waiting for his trial to begin, including time in lockdowns and in isolation.

Doody argued that Ortis’s health may have been put at risk between 2019 and 2022 because he was subjected to X-ray scans every time he left or returned to the jail — roughly 600 scans in total. Due to the security concerns in this case, Ortis could only review disclosure in a secure offsite location.

“We don’t know what Mr. Ortis’s health will be in the future and how it will be affected by those scans,” said Doody.

“No inmate has had to suffer what Mr. Ortis suffered.”

Doody told the court his client has been “de-banked,” meaning Canadian banks won’t do business with him or allow him to have an account. He said Ortis exhausted his savings and has no assets.

“He’s lost everything,” said Doody.

The defence filed more than two dozen support letters, including one from Michael Kovrig, one of two Canadians detained in China for almost three years. Kovrig, who spent over 1,000 days in solitary confinement, said someone with Ortis’s “high intelligence and … curious mind” shouldn’t “rot in a prison cell for the sake of deterrence.”

Ortis was granted bail in late 2022 but Justice Robert Maranger revoked his bail minutes after the verdict was delivered.

Maranger said he will sentence Ortis on Feb. 7.

Ortis claimed he was protecting Canada

Ortis claimed during his trial that he was acting to protect Canada from a “grave threat” passed along by a foreign entity. 

“I did not lose sight of my mission,” he told the jury. “The mission from the beginning of my career until the time I was arrested was to meet the threat to Canada.

Before Kliewer began her sentencing statement, Doody objected to the RCMP entering a victim impact statement. He argued the national police force is not a person or a victim. Maranger agreed and the statement was removed from the Crown’s sentencing evidence. 

Trial was like ‘walking on eggshells’

The seven-week trial was the first to test charges under the Security of Information Act in court.

National security concerns made it a highly unusual case; Kliewer compared it to “walking on eggshells the entire time.”

The court heard from nearly a dozen witnesses and received more than 500 pages of evidence. Some of the evidence was redacted and four witnesses, including Ortis, testified behind closed doors. Redacted transcripts of their testimony were later made public — sometimes days after they testified.

The defence has suggested it plans to appeal the verdict.

Ertel argued that forcing Ortis to defend himself without disclosing certain information was unfair.

“If you can’t say who gave you information or what the information was, and then you’re found guilty of acting without authority — what other rational conclusion could be drawn other than you defended yourself with one hand tied behind your back? That’s not our system of justice,” he said back in November. 

Ortis was given ‘minimal supervision’: report

Soon after Ortis was arrested, he RCMP conducted a security review that suggested the former intelligence official was able to float above suspicion.

WATCH | Ortis found guilty of leaking secret info to police targets: 

Former RCMP intelligence official Cameron Ortis has been found guilty of leaking secret information to police targets and charged with multiple counts under the Security of Information Act. It was the first time the law has been tested in court.

“Having gained the explicit trust of his superiors, he was allowed the latitude to function with minimal supervision or oversight,” the RCMP security review team wrote in its June 2020 report, obtained by CBC News through an access to information request.

“The level of trust and confidence Ortis garnered [distracted] his supervisors from being able to see common Insider Threat warning signs that surfaced well in advance of Ortis’s arrest.

“In hindsight, these warning signs seem obvious.”

Following the verdict, the RCMP admitted that “mistakes were made.”

Chief Supt. Jeffrey Beaulac, the RCMP’s deputy chief security officer, said the police service has introduced new security measures since Ortis’s arrest. They include new training for Mounties on how to detect insider threats — the term used for employees who use their authorized access or understanding of an organization to cause harm.

The force also launched a security event reporting tool at the end of last year that allows RCMP staff to flag concerns anonymously, Beaulac said.