Former top Canadian policeman given 14 years in jail for leaking secrets -CBC News

Cameron Ortis, a former director general with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) who had access to highly sensitive domestic and foreign intelligence, was found guilty last November on six charges, including multiple counts under a 2012 security of information law. Accounting for his time served, Ortis will serve more than seven years behind bars, according to CBC News.

A former top Canadian police intelligence official was sentenced to 14 years in jail on Wednesday for leaking secret information, the Canadian Broadcasting Corp reported. Cameron Ortis, a former director general with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) who had access to highly sensitive domestic and foreign intelligence, was found guilty last November on six charges, including multiple counts under a 2012 security of information law.

Accounting for his time served, Ortis will serve more than seven years behind bars, according to CBC News. Prosecutors argued Ortis used his position within the RCMP to leak sensitive information to people being targeted by the police. Ortis claimed he was acting to protect Canada from a "grave threat" that had been mentioned in a warning from a spy agency in a different country.

The trial heard that Ortis had contacted the head of Canadian company Phantom Secure offering to sell secrets. Vincent Ramos, the firm's chief executive, pleaded guilty in 2018 to U.S. charges of facilitating international narcotics traffic by supplying drug cartels with encrypted communications devices designed to thwart law enforcement. He was sentenced in May to nine years in prison.

Canada is a member of the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing network alongside the United States, Britain, New Zealand and Australia. After Ortis was charged in 2019, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Canada was working to reassure its partners. A lawyer for Ortis could not immediately be reached for comment.