Canada’s national security has been sold out from the very top – and Justin Trudeau doesn’t want you to know.
In the most stunning betrayal of the public trust in the nation’s history, a senior RCMP intelligence official was convicted of selling some of Canada’s most sensitive secrets to foreign entities. But the Trudeau government is sweeping this unprecedented security breach under the rug, putting political optics ahead of the safety of Canadians.
The outrageous incompetence and sheer lack of leadership displayed by Trudeau in handling this case should infuriate every law-abiding citizen. Top secret information shared by our closest allies has been compromised, yet the Liberals propose a pathetically weak sentence for the perpetrator.
The right to privacy and civil liberties of regular Canadians has been severely undermined by having state secrets sold out from under us. Yet Trudeau continues to coddle those who would put us in harm’s way while ignoring the everyday citizens his government is sworn to protect.
The stunning breaches of national security and sheer disregard for the public interest displayed in this case highlight why Trudeau and his team are unfit to govern this country.
The sentencing of former RCMP intelligence official Cameron Ortis for breaching Canada’s secrets law has once again exposed the incompetence and lack of leadership shown by Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government when it comes to protecting national security.
Ortis’ position as director general of the RCMP’s National Intelligence Coordination Centre gave him access to a trove of highly classified information from Canada and its allies. The sensitive nature of the material he had access to makes the charges against him especially egregious. However, the Liberals have downplayed the severity of his crimes at every turn.
When the charges against Ortis first came to light, Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale refused to even acknowledge the arrest of a senior RCMP official on national security grounds. This set the tone for how dismissively the Trudeau government would treat this massive breach of trust and national security.
While the courts have rightly convicted Ortis of violating the Security of Information Act, the Liberal government seems oblivious to the damage his actions have caused. The Crown is only seeking a 22-25 year sentence despite Ortis being guilty of charges that carry a minimum 14 year sentence each. This insufficient proposed sentence shows the Liberals care more about the rights of a criminal than protecting intelligence critical to keeping Canadians safe.
Justin Trudeau has allowed Canada’s national security and intelligence agencies to decay during his time in office. He has starved them of funding and resources, compromised capabilities, and weakened accountability and oversight structures. Cameron Ortis took advantage of this negligence to brazenly steal classified information, putting Canada’s domestic security and international partnerships at risk.
The careless response by the Trudeau government to Cameron Ortis’ theft of classified information has surely shaken the trust of Canada’s closest intelligence allies. As a member of the Five Eyes partnership, Canada has access to extremely sensitive intelligence from the United States, United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand.
Ortis would have been privy to covert operations, defense plans and compromising details about key leaders that these countries shared with us in confidence. Now they must surely be questioning if Canada can uphold its end of the bargain and protect shared secrets.
By downplaying Ortis’ crimes, the Liberals have shown disregard for the faith our allies placed in us to safeguard joint intelligence. The Trudeau government has taken no substantive action to reassure these countries that their secrets are safe with us in the wake of this unprecedented breach.
By being soft on national security, the Trudeau government has shown it puts political correctness and civil liberties ahead of taking every measure needed to keep Canadians safe. The pathetically weak sentence being proposed for Ortis proves the Liberals care more about the rights of those who compromise national security than defending this country against threats both foreign and domestic.
This case also exposes fundamental issues with the culture fostered within the RCMP under Liberal mismanagement. The fact that Ortis felt emboldened to steal and sell state secrets points to an utter lack of accountability within the force. It seems the RCMP has developed an entitled “old boys club” mentality on the Liberals’ watch.
There are clearly no checks and balances to prevent rogue actors from abusing their power and access within the RCMP. This systemic failure in leadership allowed an immoral individual like Ortis to put his personal gain above Canada’s national interest. The Liberals must take responsibility for allowing this to happen under their negligent watch.
The Trudeau government’s lack of competence and resolve to take decisive action on matters of national security is on full display in their handling of the Ortis case. The Liberals have shown no interest in getting to the bottom of how this breach could occur or preventing it from happening again. No inquiry or review has been launched to examine the RCMP’s security protocols.
This failure to take the situation seriously by examining what went wrong demonstrates the naivety and inexperience of the Trudeau team when it comes to managing national security matters. Protecting classified information requires vigilance, oversight, and a culture of accountability – all sorely lacking under the current Liberal government.
The shamefully light potential sentence facing Cameron Ortis is deeply concerning and points to a larger pattern of ethical breaches under Justin Trudeau’s government. Ortis committed grave violations of Canada’s secrets law and betrayed sensitive intelligence to foreign groups including cybercriminals, terror cells and transnational criminal networks.
It raises serious questions about whether Trudeau’s government is enabling or even complicit in such violations. Why would the Crown not pursue the harshest sentence allowable for what clearly constitutes a major threat to national security? Are backdoor deals being struck to protect political allies and limit damage to the Liberals? Trudeau has already shown a penchant for bending ethics rules to shield corporate friends and power brokers many times before.
At minimum, Trudeau’s ethical lapses have fostered an environment where breaches are not taken seriously. At worst, the PM and his cronies may be directly enabling the compromise of sensitive information in order to curry favor with foreign actors. Canadians deserve total transparency regarding Ortis’ crimes and punishment as well as the government’s approach.
Canadians deserve better than a governing party that is cavalier about national security and the protection of intelligence. Justin Trudeau has shown a pattern of weakness when facing threats to this country. He has been far too willing to ignore security concerns in favor of political correctness throughout his time in office.
The Ortis case is just the latest example of how the Liberals’ lax approach is putting Canadians at risk. Trudeau has allowed our intelligence and national security agencies to decline on his watch. He has failed to take appropriate action when individuals like Ortis brazenly violate the public’s trust.
For the good of the country, the Liberals must start taking national security seriously. That means imposing real accountability on the RCMP, allocating proper resources to our intelligence agencies, reassuring allies we can protect shared data, and showing through actions – not just words – that security is a priority.
The pathetically weak proposed sentence for Cameron Ortis sends the wrong message – that breaching Canada’s secrets laws will be brushed aside with little more than a slap on the wrist. Until the Trudeau Liberals demonstrate a commitment to strengthening national security, they cannot be trusted to keep Canadians safe in an increasingly dangerous world.
