Alleged RCMP spy's lawyer 'disappointed' with pace of case so far

The lawyer for the RCMP intelligence official accusedofpreparing to leak secrets to a foreign entity or terrorist groupsays he's "disappointed" with how long it's taking the Crown to hand over crucial documents in the case.

Cameron Ortis, the head of the RCMP's national intelligence co-ordination centre, was charged in September under the Security of InformationAct with preparing to share sensitive information with a foreign entity or terrorist organization. He's also charged with sharing operational information back in 2015.

"We're very disappointed with the pace of how this is proceeding," his lawyer Ian Carter told reporters outside the Ottawa courthouse today.

"We've received some disclosure. I was anticipating it was supposed to be the bulk of it. I've been told by the prosecutors that it is not, that we're still waiting to see a substantial amount of disclosure that's not likely to come until the end of January."

Inside the courtroom, Carter saidthe case has been "dragging on" for months.

Ortis's bail was revoked last month, putting him back in custody. That's given his case an addedsense of urgency, said his lawyer.

"Obviously we want to get this matter moving as quickly as possible," he said.

Inside the courtroom today, Crown attorney JohnMacFarlanesaid the prosecution already has given the defence thousands of pages of disclosure andrecently handedover a hard drive with more than 14,000 pages covering the police investigation up to July.

He called it an unusual and exceptional case and said every effort is being made to give the defence more files.

Sources, speaking on the condition of anonymity because they're not authorized to talk about the ongoing court case, have said Ortis kept a large number of encrypted computers at his home, making the investigation harder to pursue.

Documents shared with CBC say Ortishad material that, if released, would cause a "high" degree of damage to Canada.

RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki has said that,by virtue of his position, Ortis, 47, had access to intelligence gathered by both Canadian authorities and foreign allies.

Ortis will be back in court Jan. 28