Cameron Ortis leaves the courthouse in Ottawa after being granted bail in 2019.Justin Tang/The Canadian Press
A Crown prosecutor read out a series of e-mails in court on Wednesday as part of the argument that a former RCMP employee charged with allegedly leaking secrets had communicated with targets of international police efforts.
Cameron Ortis, 51, pleaded not guilty to six charges – including four related to allegedly breaching the Security of Information Act while working for the Mounties – as his trial began Tuesday.
A major theme of the case will be whether Mr. Ortis had the authority to perform his actions, given his role as a high-level director at Canada’s national police force. His defence team has stated that he did. Crown prosecutor Judy Kliewer told the court she is confident the jury will be satisfied the opposite is true.
Ms. Kliewer took jurors through the agreed statement of facts on Wednesday, including e-mail communication with a man named Vincent Ramos, who was the chief executive officer of Phantom Secure, a B.C.-based company that produced encrypted communications devices used by criminal organizations.
One of the charges related to breaching the security act involves sharing information with an individual identified on a charge sheet as “V.R.” That stands for Mr. Ramos.
While testifying on Wednesday, now retired RCMP staff sergeant Guy Belley said he was “totally shocked” to discover an e-mail that contained 10 attachments, including documents from the national police force, on Mr. Ramos’s laptop.
Police identified a string of e-mails that were sent to Mr. Ramos from an anonymous author between February and May in 2015. In the culmination of these messages, the author asks for payment of $20,000 for full documents. The agreed statement of facts contains those e-mails.
The Crown said Mr. Ortis contacted Mr. Ramos for the first time on Feb. 5, 2015, sending an e-mail from an account carrying the name “See All Things.” The message begins: “You do not know me. I have information that I am confident you will find very valuable. "
The sender said the information pertained to a “multi-agency investigation targeting” Phantom Secure.
“I assure you that this is a business proposition,” the e-mail says. “Nothing more. It is not risk free, of course, but the risk to reward ratio will prove to be more than acceptable.”
Former RCMP civilian Cameron Ortis alleged to have shared secrets gets day in court after four years
In a follow-up message, the sender said he would be happy to answer any questions, but emphasized it was necessary to establish secure communications to ensure he was indeed in contact with Mr. Ramos.
“I apologize for the precautions. They are necessary,” the e-mail says. “I am in the business of acquiring hard-to-get information that individuals in unique high-risk businesses find valuable. I sell that information to them.”
The sender also wrote that he was not a client of the Phantom Secure network, nor did he work for a government or a law enforcement agency.
“I do, however, have unique visibility on your clients and their activities using your devices,” a message says. “Through the course of my normal discovery ops (some call this hacking, others cracking) I came across a number of documents that pertain to your current efforts.”
An e-mail from April, 29, 2015, says, “I’ll get right to it,” and details embargoed attachments that feature copies of U.S. and Canadian law enforcement documents targeting Phantom Secure.
“Phantom Secure is of considerable interest to both law enforcement and intelligence agencies in the western world,” the e-mail says.
“The documents attached here are only a selection of the broader effort against your organization. The ultimate goal is to get at your clients, some of whom are significant global actors. Your service has stymied action against them. Thus, their goal is to disrupt or dismantle Phantom Secure.”
A later e-mail, sent in May, 2015, states that the embargoed full documents “come at a cost of 20,000 Canadian dollars in cash (firm).”
The agreed statement of facts includes information about the nature of Mr. Ortis’s employment with the RCMP, and how he was appointed as an official permanently bound to secrecy as set out in the Security of Information Act. He had top secret security clearance.
Mr. Ortis worked as the civilian director-general of the RCMP National Intelligence Coordination Centre, which afforded him access to sensitive, highly classified information. He was hired by the force in 2007 and also held positions in operations research and national-security criminal investigations.
Other documents outline how the RCMP and international law enforcement partners from the U.S., U.K., Australia and New Zealand sought to address Canadian companies that provided encrypted communication devices to transnational organized crime groups.
In July, 2013, the RCMP initiated “Project Saturation” to provide an intelligence assessment of these Canadian companies, including Phantom Secure.
Trial proceedings are expected to last several weeks at the Superior Court of Justice in Ottawa, with Justice Robert Maranger presiding. A jury of 12 people was selected Tuesday.