Alberta Mountie found not guilty of using database to help Rwanda

A Mountie in Alberta accused of using a police database to help the country of Rwanda has been found not guilty.

RCMP Const. Eli Ndatuje was on trial at the Red Deer courthouse after being charged under the Criminal Code and the Security of Information Act for alleged illegal use of the police database.

Ndatuje, 39, and his family fled war-torn Uganda and moved to Ottawa when Ndatuje was a teenager.

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.

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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.

During the trial, lawyer Robb Beeman told court his client was in touch with the Rwandan High Commission twice and both times for innocent purposes.

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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.

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.

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.