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A Mountie accused of misusing a police database to help a foreign country did nothing of the sort and is, in fact, a “Canadian success story,” his lawyer told court Monday.
RCMP Const. Eli Ndatuje faces charges under the Criminal Code and the Security of Information Act for alleged illegal use of the police database.
But his lawyer, Robb Beeman, told the court in his opening statement his client was simply trying to help out a friend on a missing person’s case in Canada.
Beeman said the 39-year-old Ndatuje and his family fled war-torn Uganda and moved to Ottawa when Ndatuje was a teenager.
“We anticipate that you will be able to conclude that [the law-breaking] did not happen,” Beeman told Court of King’s Bench Justice Jason Wilkins.
“You will be able to conclude that Const. Ndatuje is a Canadian success story.
“He is utterly a credit to himself and to the RCMP.”
‘Alleged to have divulged information’
Ndatuje was arrested in February 2024 by the RCMP’s federal policing team. It identified Rwanda as the alleged “foreign actor” involved in the case.
Mounties at the time did not provide details on Ndatuje’s duties or the type of information allegedly accessed, but said the records involved were not top secret.
Crown prosecutor Kent Brown delivered a brief summary Monday of what he hopes to prove during the trial, which is taking place in Red Deer, Alta.
“This will primarily be a paper case,” Brown told court. “This is really a matter of a police officer who is alleged to have engaged in a search on [the police database] and is alleged to have divulged information as a result of that search.”
Beeman told court his client was in touch with the Rwandan High Commission twice and both times for innocent purposes.
The first time, he said, was in April 2022. He said it was for Ndatuje to clear up some confusion over his wife’s travel documents.
“I have no doubt there’s going to be some suggestion that the communication was nefarious,” Beeman said.
On the second occasion, he said, Ndatuje was contacted by a friend at the Rwandan High Commission who was worried about the disappearance of a housekeeper who worked at the Ottawa residence of the Rwandan ambassador.
Beeman said his client told the friend to report the disappearance to police in Ottawa. He said Ndatuje, on his own initiative, then checked the police database to see if anyone had reported the housekeeper missing.
There was no record of the housekeeper being missing, and the man was later found unharmed.
“He did the search because he cared about a missing person,” Beeman told court. “One would hope that every police officer in this country would share that attitude.”
Beeman told the judge he will not find any evidence Ndatuje discussed the database search with anyone.
Bill McCrimmon, a foreign service officer from Global Affairs Canada, testified the department got a call from the Rwandan high commissioner about the missing housekeeper.
The trial is scheduled to conclude early next month.
