Canadian ex-official sentenced to 14 years for intel leaks

A former top Canadian intelligence official was sentenced Wednesday to 14 years in prison for sharing state secrets to criminal organizations, in one of the country's biggest leak scandals.

Cameron Ortis, 51, however, will only serve half that sentence after getting credit for pretrial detention.

Ontario Superior Court Justice Robert Maranger said the case was "without precedent" in Canada, marking the first conviction at trial under its Security of Information Act.

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Ortis was director general of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) national intelligence coordination unit until his arrest in September 2019.

He was convicted late last year of using his position to access sensitive information from Canada and the powerful Five Eyes intelligence alliance -- which also includes Australia, the United States, Britain and New Zealand.

He then tried to sell the information to individuals linked to money laundering schemes for Canada-listed terrorist groups.

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He also tipped off an individual about an undercover officer targeting one of his associates in Vancouver, which the prosecution said put the undercover cop at risk.

Maranger said Ortis "was in a position of extreme trust (and) he more than most knew the potential consequences of what he was doing."

"His actions potentially put lives at risk," he concluded. "And our reputation among Five Eyes partners may never be the same."

Maranger noted that Ortis, however, remains "somewhat of an enigma," as no evidence of his motive was presented at trial, nor did he personally profit from his actions.

Ortis himself declined an opportunity to speak to the court on Wednesday, and did not react when the sentence was handed down.

Outside the Ottawa courthouse, defense attorney Jon Doody -- who had sought at trial to paint Ortis as a patriot and a dedicated member of the RCMP who acted on a mysterious tip to confront a threat to the nation -- vowed to appeal both the conviction and sentence.

"He stands by his innocence," Doody told reporters.

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He noted that Ortis was disappointed that many of the details surrounding his case could not be divulged due to national security concerns.

Prosecutor Judy Kliewer, who had asked for a sentence of more than 22 years, called Ortis's actions "a serious betrayal" of the federal police and the intelligence community, and put "the security all Canadians in jeopardy."

The trial heard that Ortis received information about a national security threat and used intelligence to lure criminal targets into adopting an encrypted service set up to eavesdrop on their communications.

Witnesses including Ortis's former boss, RCMP assistant commissioner Todd Shean, however, testified that Ortis was never meant to go undercover or reach out to targets of police investigations.