Former senior intelligence official sentenced to 14 years in prison for breaking Canada’s secrets law

• Cameron Jay Ortis, a former senior intelligence official in Canada’s national police force, was sentenced to 14 years in prison for breaching the country’s secrets law.
• Ortis, 51, led the Royal Canadian Mounted Police’s Operations Research group, responsible for gathering classified information on cybercriminals.
• Ortis was accused of disclosing classified information in 2015 and attempting to do so again, allegedly without authority.

A judge Wednesday sentenced a former senior intelligence official in Canada’s national police force to 14 years in prison for breaching the country’s secrets law.

Cameron Ortis led the Royal Canadian Mounted Police’s Operations Research group, which assembles classified information on cybercriminals, terror cells and transnational criminal networks.

Ontario Superior Court Justice Robert Maranger said Wednesday that Ortis will be credited with time spent in custody, and he must now serve another seven years and 155 days.

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A jury last November declared Ortis, 51, guilty of three counts of violating the Security of Information Act and one count of attempting to do so. They also found him guilty of breach of trust and fraudulent use of a computer.

Ortis had pleaded not guilty to all charges, including violating the secrets law by revealing classified information to three individuals in 2015 and trying to do so in a fourth instance.

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The prosecution argued Ortis lacked authority to disclose classified material and that he was not doing so as part of a sanctioned undercover operation.