Feds ‘looking into’ alleged bullying by RCMP employee facing security charges
OTTAWA — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says Public Safety Minister Bill Blair is “looking into” allegations the RCMP brushed off complaints about a senior director who was later arrested on national-security charges.
Trudeau made the comments Monday about a new civil lawsuit that alleges Cameron Jay Ortis degraded and abused employees while he was director general of the RCMP’s National Intelligence Co-ordination Centre.
Ortis was arrested Sept. 12 last year for allegedly sharing secrets with an unnamed recipient and planning to give additional classified information to an unspecified foreign entity.
He is charged with Security of Information Act violations, breach of trust and a computer-related offence.
Ortis is being held in an Ottawa jail as his complex case proceeds.
The statement of claim filed in Ontario Superior Court last Thursday by three people who worked under Ortis says he belittled them, undermined their value and work and caused significant distress and mental suffering.
Francisco Chaves, Michael Vladars, and Dayna Young contend that by September 2016, it had become clear Ortis intended to force out or otherwise remove intelligence co-ordination centre employees and bring in new staff over whom he had greater control.
“Mr. Ortis would frequently tell Ms. Young that he did not like her and that he considered her work, experience and qualifications for her job to be ‘garbage,’ ” the statement of claim says.
“Mr. Ortis also told Ms. Young’s direct supervisors that he did not believe she was a qualified or capable employee.”
The claim describes repeated efforts to make concerns about Ortis’s behaviour known to senior RCMP management — efforts that apparently resulted in little or no concrete action.
All three plaintiffs say they moved to other positions within the RCMP to avoid working directly for Ortis.
Overall, the “group’s attempt to raise concerns met with inaction and, in some cases, ridicule from members of RCMP senior management,” the claim says.
The allegations have not been proven in court and the Mounties have yet to file a response. There was no immediate comment Monday from the RCMP or Blair’s office.