CBC radio and TV broadcasts chronicle how a potentially devastating (further) release of highly classified information was averted by the RCMP

Update: A Nov. 29, 2023 CBC article is entitled: “RCMP admits ‘mistakes were made’ with Cameron Ortis: Ortis breached national security laws and leaked sensitive information to organized crime figures. How did the RCMP let it happen? An internal review offers some clues.”

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A recent post is entitled:

CBC storey underlines that the Canadian intelligence community experienced a very close call; it’s a relief a potentially devastating release of highly classified information was averted by the RCMP

At the current post, I seek to bring attention to CBC broadcasts which address this story at length and in-depth.

How a high-stakes gambler set authorities on the trail of accused Canadian spy Cameron Ortis

A Dec. 7, 2020 CBC article – that is, three years ago: 2020 – is entitled: “How a high-stakes gambler set authorities on the trail of accused Canadian spy Cameron Ortis: Former RCMP intelligence chief charged with leaking secret operational information to convicted cellphone CEO.”

An excerpt reads:

Reviewing a seized computer following Ramos’s arrest, the RCMP discovered that someone had reached out to Ramos and offered to provide him with intelligence information. The Mounties started an investigation, dubbed Project Ace, to find the source of the leak.

Ortis was arrested in Ottawa on Sept. 12, 2019. Then director general of the RCMP’s National Intelligence Co-ordination Centre (NICC) for more than three years, he was one of the highest-ranking civilian members in Canada’s federal police force, with access to numerous sensitive national and multinational investigations.

A gambler, cartels and a high-profile arrest inside the RCMP

A Dec. 7, 2020 CBC article, with a link to a 24-minute CBC broadcast, is entitled: “A gambler, cartels and a high-profile arrest inside the RCMP.”

An excerpt reads:

It’s been more than a year since Cameron Ortis, the former director-general of the RCMP’s National Intelligence Coordination Centre, was arrested and charged under Canada’s Security of Information Act.

The Fifth Estate’s Bob McKeown discusses the bizarre chain of events that led to Ortis’s arrest, including the vandalism of the graves of a high-stakes gambler’s parents.

The smartest guy in the room: Cameron Ortis and the RCMP secrets scandal

A Dec. 7, 2020 CBC Fifth Estate video broadcast is entitled: “The smartest guy in the room: Cameron Ortis and the RCMP secrets scandal – The Fifth Estate.”

CTV article: “What the jury didn’t hear”

A Nov. 23, 2023 CTV article is entitled: “Cameron Ortis trial: what the jury didn’t hear about the convicted RCMP leaker.”

An except reads:

Between Aug. 26 and Sept. 11, 2019, police conducted covert searches at Ortis’s downtown Ottawa apartment, where they found a laptop with a user folder entitled “Batman.”

It contained 400 classified documents related to national security that had been accessed and printed from a computer terminal allowing access to the Canadian Top Secret Network. The CTSN is a highly classified network that allows information to be shared within the Canadian law enforcement intelligence community.

The documents were stored by month in subfolders entitled “Processed” and “Un-processed.” The “Processed” classified records had been stripped of identifying marks and converted to PDF format using software.

RCMP investigators determined that Ortis’s access badge and credentials were used to enter a CTSN terminal room – primarily on weekends  – to print documents from October 2018 to February 2019.

On Sept. 12, 2019, the day of Ortis’s arrest, a search warrant was executed, allowing for seizure of devices, documents, to-do lists, handwritten notes and other items from his home.