RCMP official accused of breaching Canada's secrecy law released on bail | CBC News:
December 21, 2022 - "After three years behind bars awaiting trial, Cameron Ortis, the RCMP official accused of breaching Canada's secrecy law, has been released on bail.Justice Robert Maranger presided over the bail review and delivered his decision in Ontario Superior Court on Wednesday. The reasons behind his decision and the evidence and testimony heard in court during the review hearing are all covered by a publication ban.
"Ortis, who served as director general of the RCMP's national intelligence co-ordination centre, is charged with violating the Security of Information Act. He is accused of trying to share sensitive information with a foreign entity or terrorist organization and also has been charged with sharing operational information in 2015. Ortis was briefly released on bail and ordered to live with his parents in Abbotsford, B.C., in October [2019; see Background - gd], before his bail was revoked. He's been in custody ever since.
"Ortis is scheduled to go to trial in October 2023."
Read more: https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/ortis-bail-decision-rcmp-1.6693469
Background
Alleged RCMP spy Cameron Ortis ordered back to jail pending trial | CBC News - Catherine Tonney:
November 8, 2019 - "Today, Ontario Superior Court Justice Marc Labrosse revoked the 47-year-old's bail, ordering the head of RCMP's national intelligence co-ordination centre back into custody. Labrosse's reasons and the details of the Crown's review application are covered by a publication ban, along with the evidence and submissions heard during the bail hearing.
"Ortis was released on bail to his parents' care in Abbotsford, B.C. on Oct. 22. He was forbidden from using any device that connects to the internet and told to report to an RCMP detachment every week. The court heard the Crown's application for a bail review last week. It was granted."
Read more: https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/cameron-ortis-rcmp-spy-espionage-1.5353144
"The smartest guy in the room: Cameron Ortis and the RCMP secrets scandal" - The Fifth Estate, CBC, December 8, 2020:
How a high-stakes gambler set authorities on the trail of accused Canadian spy Cameron Ortis | CBC News - Scott Anderson, Andrew Culbert, Bob McKeown:
December 7, 2020 - "A high-stakes American gambler who is an FBI informant and goes by the nickname Robin Hood 702 played a key role in a series of events that eventually led the RCMP to charge their head of intelligence, Cameron Ortis, with leaking secrets. R.J. Cipriani, whose nickname incorporates the 702 Las Vegas area code, built his reputation by winning money in casinos and donating much of it to worthy causes.
"But in 2011, he was asked to gamble money in Australia by former U.S. college football player Owen Hanson.... [F]earing he was being drawn into criminal activity, he went to the FBI. That led to Hanson being charged and convicted of drug trafficking.... Police discovered six encrypted cellphones Hanson had purchased from Richmond, B.C.- based Phantom Secure, a company the RCMP had been investigating for allegedly supplying encrypted technology to organized crime. The FBI then joined with the RCMP and Australian police in an investigation of Phantom Secure. Ortis is alleged to have offered Phantom Secure secret information.
"In March 2018, the FBI arrested Phantom Secure CEO and founder Vincent Ramos in Washington state. Federal police in Australia also raided several locations and seized more than 1,000 Phantom Secure cellphones. In Canada, the RCMP executed search warrants on Ramos's home and business addresses in British Columbia, but it is still unclear what they seized. It appears the RCMP information to obtain the warrants has been sealed.
"At the time of the Ramos arrest and raids, the RCMP said little about the case and it received scant media attention in Canada. But that changed 18 months later when the RCMP arrested their own intelligence chief, Cameron Ortis, in part for allegedly leaking operational information to Ramos."
Read more: https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/cameron-ortis-rcmp-spy-espionage-1.5353144
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