By Canadian Press

Former Mountie tells court he was unaware of secrets sent to investigative targets

Oct 12, 2023 | 10:47 AM

OTTAWA — A former RCMP investigator who worked on a money laundering probe says he was unaware at the time that someone had sent secret information to people who were of interest to authorities.

Retired staff sergeant Patrick Martin testified today in the trial of Cameron Jay Ortis, a former RCMP intelligence official charged with breaching Canada’s secrets law.

Ortis, 51, has pleaded not guilty to violating the Security of Information Act by allegedly revealing secrets to three individuals in 2015 and trying to do so in a fourth instance.

The Crown alleges that Ortis anonymously sent secret information to individuals of interest in the money laundering investigation, including Salim Henareh and Muhammad Ashraf.

Ortis’s lawyers have said they will argue their client had the authority to take the actions he did.

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Martin told the jury today he did not know in 2015 that a package of classified material was mailed to Henareh, nor that secrets had been sent via email to Ashraf.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 12, 2023. 

The Canadian Press