Convicted RCMP leaker to be sentenced for breaching secrets law

Ontario Superior Court Justice Robert Maranger is set to hand a sentence to Cameron Jay Ortis, found guilty in November of violating the Security of Information Act.

A former RCMP intelligence official is slated to learn his fate Wednesday after being convicted of breaching Canada’s secrets law.

Ontario Superior Court Justice Robert Maranger is set to hand a sentence to Cameron Jay Ortis, found guilty in November of violating the Security of Information Act.

Ortis, 51, led the RCMP’s Operations Research group, which assembled classified information on cybercriminals, terror cells and transnational criminal networks.

Crown prosecutor Judy Kliewer argued at a January hearing that Ortis should be sentenced to decades behind bars.

Jon Doody, a lawyer for Ortis, said his client should simply be sentenced to the time he has already served since his September 2019 arrest.

In November, jurors declared Ortis guilty of three counts of violating the Security of Information Act and one count of attempting to do so.

Each of these counts is punishable by a maximum of 14 years in prison.

The Crown has argued for maximum, consecutive sentences on the first two counts of breaching the secrets law, amounting 28 years in prison. It wants sentences that would be served concurrently for the remaining two secrets law offences.