Former RCMP intelligence official Cameron Ortis granted bail pending appeal

Former RCMP intelligence official Cameron Ortis — who was sentenced to 14 years in jail after leaking national secrets — has been granted bail pending appeal, CTV News has confirmed.

Ortis is expected to be released once conditions are set, and further details around that are expect Monday.

Ortis was the director general of the RCMP’s National Intelligence Coordination Centre before his arrest in September, 2019.

Last November, a jury found him guilty of six charges, including three counts of violating the Security of Information Act, and one attempt to do so, in what became the first time charges under the official secrets law had been put on trial.

Justice Robert Maranger said at the time of Ortis’ sentencing in February that the task was a “heavy burden,” and that he expected the Ortis decision to be appealed to higher courts on the grounds of “what evidence could and could not be presented at a trial for reasons of national security.”

Both the Crown and defence have filed appeals of Ortis’ sentence, and his application for appeal was heard on March 8.

He has been serving his time at Joyceville Institution, a medium-security prison near Kingston, Ont.

With files from CTV News’ Judy Trinh