QUEBEC -- An inquest may travel to Australia to gather evidence into the death of Canadian diplomat John Watkins who died of a heart attack 17 years ago during questioning by the RCMP, Coroner Stanislas Dery said Thursday.
Dery said he wanted to hear testimony from a key witness, now living in Australia, in order to round out evidence at the inquest which begins Dec. 21. An alternative plan, Dery said, would be to bring the witness, Leslie James Bennett, brought to Canada for the revived inquiry.
Dery said testimony from Bennett, now retired from the RCMP where he once served in a top security post, would be 'important.'
'I have submitted a request and the probable cost of bringing him here or the inquest travelling there. The expenses in this are very high, however, and I have no idea what the answer will be,' Dery said.
Watkins died in 1964 while undergoing interrogation by two RCMP officers who were attempting to determine whether the former Canadian ambassador to Moscow had become a security risk because of his alleged homosexual leanings.
The interviews with Watkins began in Paris, moved to London and finally to a Montreal hotel room -- where he died of coronary arrest after 48 straight hours of questioning, during a total of 21 days of interrogation.
The initial RCMP investigation had been prompted by a Soviet defector's charge that Watkins had been compromised by the Russian intelligence service.
Coroner Marcel Trahan determined at the time that Watkins' death at age 62 had been 'unforeseeable' but natural.
Trahan's report made no mention of Bennett and said the second RCMP officer involved in questioning Watkins, Insp. Harry Brandeis of the RCMP security service, should be considered 'a friend of the deceased.' Brandeis was not identified as a Mountie.
Quebec Justice Minister Marc Andre Bedard ordered the inquest in September, a move criticized at the time by Solicitor General Robert Kaplan as 'unnecessary and a witch hunt.' But Kaplan has said he would co-operate fully with the inquest.
The federal government would likely have a representative present throughout proceedings, Dery said.
Dery said the inquest would sit two days in December, but since he expected to call some 20 witnesses, it would likely continue in mid-January.
