Former assistant RCMP commissioner tells court he was a fan of Cameron Ortis’s work

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A former assistant commissioner of the RCMP testified Monday he was a “fan” of Cameron Ortis, a high-ranking civilian member now on trial over allegations of sharing secrets.

Todd Shean, a retired veteran of the RCMP who served more than 30 years, told court that an RCMP intelligence unit called “operations research” (OR), formerly led by Mr. Ortis, took in information from domestic and international partners.

Mr. Shean said the unit would decipher intelligence to inform the force of threats that could potentially affect individuals in Canada or abroad.

Mr. Ortis, who joined the RCMP as a civilian member in 2007, was appointed as the “officer in charge” of the OR in September, 2012, and was promoted to director of it in April, 2013. His role in the OR, as well as how the unit functioned, is key to his criminal trial, which began earlier this month.

Mr. Ortis faces six criminal charges, including four which involve allegedly breaching the Security of Information Act. He also faces a computer-related charge and an allegation of breach of trust. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

Mr. Shean told court Monday Mr. Ortis reported directly to him and he reported to then deputy commissioner Mike Cabana, who reported to then-commissioner Bob Paulson.

During an examination-in-chief by Crown prosecutor Judy Kliewer, Mr. Shean described Mr. Ortis as “meticulous” while he led the OR.

“I’m not going to lie; I was a fan of Cam,” Mr. Shean said, adding he thought Mr. Ortis would rise through the ranks of the force.

Mr. Ortis’s lawyers have yet to make their case in court but have told reporters that the defence team will be “able to establish that he [Ortis] did have authority to do everything he did.”

The multiweek trial is being held in the Superior Court of Justice in Ottawa in front of a 12-person jury. Justice Robert Maranger is overseeing the trial.

Earlier Monday, a retired RCMP superintendent who was in charge of the national force’s undercover unit testified that Mr. Ortis was not a registered undercover operator.

Kevin Lamontagne, who was the officer in charge of the undercover program in early 2015, was asked Monday by Ms. Kliewer whether he was aware of Mr. Ortis being registered to conduct undercover work, to which he replied “No.”

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Ms. Kliewer also asked Mr. Lamontagne if he was aware of whether Mr. Ortis received a temporary designation to do this work between January and March of 2015. He said he was not aware of any such designation being provided.

Mr. Lamontagne also told court it would have been highly unusual for someone of Mr. Ortis’s rank to be trained as an undercover operator.

During his cross-examination of Mr. Lamontagne, defence lawyer Mark Ertel said it would be against federal law to release special operational information without authority, adding this would all turn on “whether someone had authority or not.”

Mr. Ortis, now 51, was first charged four years ago, in September, 2019, in a case that sparked concerns among the Five Eyes – an intelligence pact which Canada is part of along with Britain, the United States, Australia and New Zealand – because of the level of access to classified information that he had access to.

At the time of his arrest, Mr. Ortis was the civilian director-general of the RCMP National Intelligence Co-ordination Centre. He is currently out on bail but faces strict restrictions, including needing to wear a device on his ankle that tracks his whereabouts.

In her opening remarks, Ms. Kliewer said Mr. Ortis did not have the authority to take actions that he did. She also said Mr. Ortis was on French-language training in early 2015, at the time when he allegedly committed the offences.

In a package of exhibits related to an agreed statement of facts in the case, there is a string of e-mails that the Crown says was sent by Mr. Ortis to a man named Vincent Ramos.

Mr. Ramos headed a company called Phantom Secure that produced encrypted phones. The e-mail exchanges culminate in an request in May, 2015, for $20,000 for full copies of classified documents.

Mr. Ramos pleaded guilty in the U.S. to providing Phantom Secure devices to assist in the distribution of cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine to Canada, the U.S., Australia, Mexico, Thailand and Europe. He was sentenced to nine years imprisonment.

Mr. Ortis also faces charges for communicating with Greater Toronto Area businessmen Salim Henareh and Muhammad Ashraf and attempting to communicate with another individual, Farzam Mehdizadeh.

The agreed statement of facts said Mr. Henareh, Mr. Ashraf and Mr. Mehdizadeh and their companies were subjects of the investigation in Canada.

During Mr. Ortis’s trial, the jury has heard about an investigation called Project Oryx that investigated money service businesses in the GTA.

The statement of facts said that from at least 2014, the RCMP, along with multiple Five Eyes law enforcement and intelligence agencies, investigated money laundering activities conducted by various entities believed to be associated with Altaf Khanani.

On Oct. 27, 2015, Mr. Khanani, a Dubai-based money service businesses owner and the head of an international money laundering network, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering and was sentenced to 68 months in prison.

Mr. Shean told court on Monday that collective intelligence was used to facilitate the arrest of Mr. Khanani.

He also testified that the encrypted communications devices distributed by Phantom Secure were a significant concern to the RCMP.