Royal Canadian Mounted Police assesses impacts of possible leaks by alleged mole

[steven36]

Reeling from the arrest of one of its high-ranking intelligence employees, Canada’s national police force is assessing possible damage the alleged mole may have caused to Canada and its allies, the head of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) said Monday.

 

Image: Brenda Lucki speaks in Regina after being named the 24th commissioner of the RCMP. Lucki says charges against a senior employee of the RCMP for alleged criminality under the Criminal Code and the Security of Information Act have shaken many people throughout the RCMP. (CBC)

 

RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki said charges against Cameron Ortis for alleged offences under the Criminal Code and the rarely used Security of Information Act have shaken many people throughout the federal police force, which also deals with highly sensitive national security investigations.

 

“This is an ongoing investigation and we are assessing the impacts of the alleged activities as information becomes available,” Lucki said in a statement. “We are aware of the potential risk to agency operations of our partners in Canada and abroad and we thank them for their continued collaboration. We assure you that mitigation strategies are being put in place as required.”

 

Ortis, 47, a civilian director general of the RCMP’s National Intelligence Coordination Centre, was arrested on Thursday, Sept. 12, Lucki said.

 

Image:Cameron Ortis made his first court appearance in Ottawa last week. The civilian employee with an RCMP intelligence team faces several charges under the Security of Information Act.

 

An expert on cybersecurity and East Asia, Ortis had been with the RCMP since 2007 and has held positions in Operations Research and National Security Criminal Investigations, Lucki said.

 

“By virtue of the positions he held, Mr. Ortis had access to information the Canadian intelligence community possessed,” Lucki said in a statement. “He also had access to intelligence coming from our allies both domestically and internationally.”

 

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the federal government is taking the situation “very seriously.”

 

“I think people will understand I can’t make any public comments on this, but I can assure you this is something that the responsible authorities are engaged with at the highest levels, including with our allies,” Trudeau told reporters during a campaign stop in Waterloo, Ontario, when asked how this case might affect Canada’s international relationships.

 

Ortis faces five charges, RCMP said:

 

• Section 14(1) of the Security of Information Act (communicating or confirming special operational information)
• Section 22(1)(b) of the Security of Information Act (obtaining, retaining or gaining access to any information)
• Section 22(1)(e) of the Security of Information Act (possessing any device, apparatus or software useful for concealing the content of information or for surreptitiously communicating, obtaining or retaining information)
• Section 122 of the Criminal Code (breach of trust by public officer)
• Section 342.1(1) of the Criminal Code (unauthorized use of computer)

 

He appeared briefly Friday afternoon in an Ottawa courtroom via video link. His case was put over to Sept. 20 and he remains in custody.

 

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[steven36]

Arrest of Canadian intelligence officer spooks western powers

 

 

Image: Cameron Ortis,

 

The arrest of a senior Canadian intelligence official accused of selling secrets has raised concerns about whether the Five Eyes international intelligence sharing network, of which Britain is a member, has been compromised.

 

Five Eyes was set up by the western victors of the Second World War and also includes Australia, New Zealand, the US and Canada.

 

Cameron Ortis, 47, who led the intelligence unit of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, had “access to intelligence originating from our partners both domestically and internationally”, Brenda Lucki, the force’s commissioner, said yesterday. Mr Ortis, an East Asia expert, speaks Mandarin.

 

Asked about the arrest while campaigning for re-election in Newfoundland, Justin Trudeau, the prime minister, said he was in direct communication with allies and “working with them to reassure them”.

 

The sheer quantity of covert information allegedly at Mr Ortis’s disposal has raised alarm. “This individual was at the sharp end of the stick,” Stephanie Carvin, a Carleton University professor and former government national security analyst, said. She described the breach as “potentially the worst” in Canadian intelligence history.

 

Mr Ortis is accused of communicating operational information in 2015 and of gathering intelligence last year to share with a foreign entity or terrorist group. He faces seven charges under the Security of Information Act and the criminal code. His arrest was the culmination of an inquiry that had started last year.

 

Federal prosecutors allege that Mr Ortis “obtained, stored [and] processed sensitive information, we believe with the intent to communicate it to people he shouldn’t be communicating it to”. The intended recipient is the subject of speculation.

 

As a net consumer of intelligence Canada must take extra care with information collected by its partners, Ms Carvin said. “If we can’t be shown to earn that trust, it’s hard to underestimate how damaging that could be for Canadian national security.”

 

Mr Ortis was working on a Russian money-laundering inquiry in which he met Bill Browder, the American financier and Kremlin critic, in Ottawa two years ago. “His arrest was a big shock,” Mr Browder, 55, told The Times. “There was nothing about his conduct which suggested that he was compromised in any way.”

 

Mr Ortis is due to reappear in court on Friday.

 

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[Infinite_Vision]

Thanks for the news steve36.  I feel like a lot of news is going to come out on subjects south of Canada too.  They are reeling from this news but how come no one is talking about this one where a hugh chunk of it affected people in congressional office.  The intentional/unintentional of highly classified emails will top everything everyone has seen.  If you wanna learn more about the five eyes click here .   They are not so innocent after all   .  So who leaked the conversation of National Security General Flynn?  The person who asked for the info had to sign for it.