Former RCMP director Cameron Ortis goes to trial accused of leaking sensitive information

Cameron Ortis, the former RCMP intelligence official charged with leaking top-secret information, is finally heading to trial today for one of the most sensitive court cases in Canadian history.

As the former director general of the RCMP's national intelligence co-ordination centre in Ottawa, Ortis had access to national and multinational investigations and coveted intelligence.

He faces six charges, including four counts of violating the Security of Information Act.

The 51-year-old is accused of three counts of sharing special operational information "intentionally and without authority" and one count of attempting to share special operational information. He also faces two Criminal Code charges: breach of trust and unauthorized use of a computer.

Details of the charges against Ortis — including the names of the parties the Crown claims were the intended recipients of his alleged leaks — are likely to come out during the trial. For now, court documents only identify those parties by their initials: V.R., S.H., M.A. and F.M.

"This is extremely unprecedented," said Jess Davis, a former analyst at the Canadian Intelligence Security Service. "Ortis is someone who held a very high position in a very sensitive part of the RCMP.

"It's shaken the core of the public service and the security and intelligence community because this is someone who lots of people had contact with, lots of people would have had opportunity to work with."

Davis, now president of Insight Threat Intelligence, said she'll be watching to see the evidence the Crown presents about possible motive, whether the RCMP employed proper checks and balances to protect its intelligence and how the defence makes its case.

Ortis's lawyer Mark Ertel said his client is looking forward to testifying in the coming weeks. 

"We believe he has a compelling story and that he won't be found guilty of any charges," Ertel said.  

"He's charged with doing things without authority and we believe that we'll be able to establish that he did have authority to do everything he did."

This will be the first time a court tests charges under the Security of Information Act.

"It's pretty groundbreaking," said Leah West, who practises national security law and teaches at Carleton University's Norman Paterson School of International Affairs.

"Not only is it a test case, there could be a lot of lessons learned for how to deal with intelligence-to-evidence cases in other contexts, where we want to prosecute other national security cases."