Cameron Ortis, a former RCMP intelligence director accused of disclosing classified information, returns to the Ottawa Courthouse during a break in proceedings in Ottawa, on Tuesday, Oct. 3, 2023. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Spencer Colby
OTTAWA – A former senior Mountie acknowledges there were tensions from time to time between an intelligence unit he led and one run by Cameron Jay Ortis, who is charged with breaching Canada’s secrets law.
Warren Coons, now a retired chief superintendent, was responsible for the National Intelligence Co-ordination Centre, an RCMP unit that aimed to track emerging trends of interest to the force.
At the time, Ortis was director of the RCMP’s Operations Research group, which had access to highly classified intelligence.
Coons told the jury in Ortis’s Ontario Superior Court trial today the relationship between the two units wasn’t adversarial, but it was not a strong one.
The Crown alleges that Ortis anonymously sent secret information in 2015 to people who were of investigative interest to the RCMP.
Ortis, 51, has pleaded not guilty to violating the Security of Information Act by allegedly revealing secrets to three individuals and trying to do so in a fourth instance.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 13, 2023.
