Cameron Ortis sentenced to 14 years in prison for violating the Secrets Act

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Ortis, 51, led the RCMP's operational research group, which gathered classified information on cybercriminals, terrorist cells and transnational criminal networks. (Archive photo)

The Canadian Press

L'former head of intelligence for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police Canada (RCMP) Cameron Ortis was sentenced Wednesday to 14 years in prison for violating Canada's Privacy Act.

Ortis was found guilty in November, following his trial where he pleaded not guilty to all charges, including violating the Protection of Information Act revealing classified information to three persons of interest to the RCMP in 2015, and attempting to do so in a fourth instance.

Justice Robert Maranger of the Ontario Superior Court in Ottawa said Wednesday that'taking into account preventive detention, Ortis will have to serve another 7 years and 155 days in prison.

Ortis, 51, led the RCMP's operational research group, which collected classified information on cybercriminals, terrorist cells and transnational criminal networks.

Jurors in November found Ortis guilty of three counts of violating the Protection of Information Act and one count of attempting to do so. Each of these counts carries a maximum sentence of 14 years in prison.

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The Crown demanded in January consecutive maximum sentences for the first two counts of violating the law, for a total of 28 years in prison. She wanted the sentences to be served concurrently for the other two violations of the law.

The Crown therefore believed that a prison sentence of 22 to 25 years would be appropriate if the judge took into account the principle of totality, which avoids excessive sentences.

The defense, for its part, argued for a sentence of seven years and two months — the length which should be credited to him since his arrest in September 2019, according to his lawyer.

During the trial of Cameron Ortis, the image emerged of an intense and cleverly intelligent man — a runner enthusiast who kept his private life to himself.

Ortis testified that he did not betray the RCMP. Instead, he says he offered secret material to investigative targets in an attempt to encourage them to use an online encryption service set up by an allied intelligence agency to spy on adversaries.

The Crown was unable to identify his motive, but maintained that Ortis had no authority to release classified documents and was not doing so as part of a legitimate undercover operation.

Crown prosecutor Judy Kliewer argued in January that Ortis deserved an exemplary sentence which will show the public and Canada's international partners that the system intended to protect sensitive information has teeth.

Ortis was briefly released on bail after his arrest in late 2019, only to return to a prison in&# x27;Ottawa for more than three years. He was released on bail again, with strict conditions, in December 2022, pending his trial which took place last fall in Ottawa.

At the sentencing hearing in January, his lawyer, Jon Doody, argued the unusual hardships endured by Ortis in custody. He said Ortis spent years alone in pretrial detention, contracted COVID-19, and was repeatedly strip-searched and X-rayed during documentation review sessions in his case, in a secure off-site facility.