OTTAWA — A top intelligence official with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police who had access to a wide array of highly sensitive information gathered by Canada and its allies has been charged with passing along or offering secrets.

The official, Cameron Ortis, the director general of the force’s National Intelligence Coordination Center, faces three charges under a rarely used national secrets law. Arrested on Friday, he also faces criminal charges of breach of trust and unauthorized use of a computer.

“He would have had at least top-secret clearance and he would have had access to a great deal of sensitive information,” said Wesley Wark, a visiting research professor at the University of Ottawa who studies intelligence and national security. “This has the appearance of a long investigation and the longer these investigations go, the more likely it is that it involved allied partners.”

The charges indicate that Mr. Ortis is accused of passing on or offering secrets in 2015, and then gathering information in 2018 and this year with an intent to do the same.