RCMP charge senior intelligence official with breaching Canada’s official secrets law

Globe and Mail ^ | September 13, 2019 | Daniel Leblanc and Marieke Walsh

[Zhang Fei]

The RCMP have charged one of its highest-ranking intelligence officials with illegally storing and communicating classified information, raising fears of a massive security breach at the national police force that stands to affect the operations of law-enforcement agencies in Canada and around the world.

Current and retired members of the RCMP were shocked by the arrest of Cameron Jay Ortis, who was director-general of the National Intelligence Coordination Centre. The 47-year-old faces seven charges under the Security of Information Act and the Criminal Code in relation to alleged infractions between 2015 and 2019.

According to documents filed in court, he is charged under the act with obtaining and preparing information for the purpose of communication with a foreign entity or terrorist group, as well as communicating or confirming “special operational information” to an unspecified entity or individual. He is also charged under the Criminal Code with breach of trust.

Mr. Ortis was arrested on Thursday and appeared in court on Friday. His position at the RCMP provided him with access to sensitive information from the police force, other Canadian law-enforcement agencies and from allied police and intelligence services around the world, current and retired RCMP officials said.

Security experts said the charges will affect Canada’s reputation and cause concerns among allies, including questions over what information was leaked to whom and whether any investigations were compromised.

Mr. Ortis, who speaks Mandarin, according to his Linkedin profile, was a rare civilian to rise up the ranks of criminal intelligence at the RCMP. His PhD thesis at the University of British Columbia dealt with cybersecurity in East Asia.

John MacFarlane, a senior counsel with the Public Prosecution Service, said in court that Mr. Ortis “obtained, stored, processed sensitive information.”

“The Crown believes that he intended to communicate that information to people he

[Zhang Fei]

The arrested agent, Cameron Ortis, may have spied for the Chinese. The allegation on a website is that Ortis was outed by a Chinese spy, arrested in Belgium, who turned against his employers:

https://news.clearancejobs.com/2019/09/15/canada-arrests-chinese-spy-after-being-tipped-off-by-u-s-intelligence/

[mylife]

Oh noes, trouble in the Klondike?

[mylife]

“there, there constable, don’t cry...”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=4&v=JnQzQ8GtWXo