Espionage

OTTAWA – When Cameron Jay Ortis, the former RCMP intelligence director general accused of leaking top-secret information, steps into an Ottawa courtroom on Tuesday he won’t be the only one on trial.

It stands to be the first time in this country’s history that a Canadian is tried for alleged breaches of classified information under the current version of the Security of Information Act. To many observers of the intelligence community, it is a test of whether Canada in fact has the ability to prosecute espionage cases.

Lawyers for Cameron Ortis, the former RCMP intelligence director accused of leaking top-secret information, are expected to argue that their client had “authority to do everything he did” when his long-awaited trial gets underway next week.

Ortis, who was the head of the RCMP’s national intelligence co-ordination centre at the time of his arrest, is going to trial on six charges, including four counts of violating the Security of Information Act.

I get the feeling he will beat the charges because conviction would likely expose the incompetence of higher ups.

Listening to national security adviser Jody Thomas’s testimony about Chinese interference in the House of Commons last week, everything I heard rang true.

In my time in government as a senior diplomat, I had access to that infamous “secure system” she referenced. In fact, I was a keen consumer of its intel information. However, I was the exception.

The government of Canada is in “advanced stages” of drafting a list of entities that pose a risk to national security, and top universities are prepared to avoid working with these entities despite what could be a loss of $100 million or more in annual research funding from foreign partners.

The list will include foreign-state-connected universities, research institutes and laboratories that are believed to be at “higher risk” of engaging in theft, unwanted knowledge transfers and interference in research, according to government documents reviewed by the Star.

Federal departments and agencies have revoked the security clearances of three employees for spying or acting as foreign agents, records show, though their identities and the governments they served were not disclosed.

The details were provided in response to an Inquiry of Ministry. Conservative MP John Barlow, who submitted the inquiry on Feb. 9, wanted to know how many public servants have had their security clearances revoked for cause since 2016, and how many were due to individual spying or otherwise acting on behalf of a foreign government.