Cameron Ortis — the previous RCMP intelligence official discovered responsible late final 12 months of leaking secret data to police targets — will study his destiny later this morning when an Ontario Superior Courtroom decide palms down his sentence.
The Crown is searching for a steep sentence it says fits his crimes: two consecutive sentences totalling 28 years in jail.
Throughout a sentencing listening to final month, Crown prosecutor Judy Kliewer informed Justice Robert Maranger the Crown’s proposal is “not solely an applicable however a needed sentence.”
The defence, in the meantime, has argued that the previous civilian member of the RCMP endured hardships whereas in custody ready for his trial to start and should not serve one other day behind bars.
“No inmate has needed to undergo what Mr. Ortis suffered,” stated defence lawyer Jon Doody final month.
Ortis, 51, was discovered responsible in November of all six prices towards him, together with violating Canada’s secrets and techniques act.
Crown prosecutors efficiently argued that Ortis used his place inside the RCMP — main a unit that had entry to Canadian and allied intelligence — to leak delicate data to police targets in early 2015.
The jury discovered Ortis responsible of leaking particular operational data “with out authority” to Phantom Safe CEO Vincent Ramos — who bought encrypted cellphones to organized crime members — and to Salim Henareh and Muhammad Ashraf, two males police suspected of being brokers of a world money-laundering community with ties to terrorists.
The 51-year-old additionally was discovered responsible of making an attempt to leak data to Farzam Mehdizadeh. One RCMP witness informed Ortis’s trial he believes Mehdizadeh labored with “an important cash launderers on the earth.”
Defence says Ortis ‘misplaced the whole lot’
Kliewer argued {that a} extra lenient sentence would ship a sign to allies that Canada cannot defend their delicate data. As a member of the 5 Eyes alliance with the U.S., the U.Ok., New Zealand and Australia, Canada has dedicated to sharing and defending pooled intelligence.
“If the consequence imposed at this time is just not vital, that promise to our companions is hole,” Kliewer stated.
The defence informed the decide that throughout the three years Ortis spent in custody awaiting trial, he was subjected to solitary confinement and lockdowns.
Doody stated Ortis has “misplaced the whole lot,” together with his job, buddies and financial savings.
The defence filed greater than two dozen help letters, together with one from Michael Kovrig, one in every of two Canadians detained in China for nearly three years. Kovrig, who spent over 1,000 days in solitary confinement, stated somebody with Ortis’s “excessive intelligence and … curious thoughts” should not “rot in a jail cell for the sake of deterrence.”
Maranger will start delivering his sentencing determination at 10 a.m. ET in Ottawa.
