MONTREAL -- RCMP interrogation of Canada's first ambassador to Moscow, John Watkins, was kept secret to prevent scandal and to keep counter-espionage operations under wraps, a senior member of the force has told a coroners inquest.
Henry Brandes, chief superintendant of the RCMP appeared Tuesday before Coroner Stanislas Dery to unravel the chain of events that led to Watkins' death in 1964.
Watkins, 62, died in a suburban Montreal hotel room Oct. 12, 1964 while being investigated as a possible security risk by Brandes and another RCMP counter-espionage officer, Leslie James Bennett, now retired and living in Australia.
Brandes was the star witness of the inquiry, ordered by the Quebec government when questions were raised about misleading information on the original coroner's report.
An inquest was not held at the time of the death 17 years ago, because the coroner at the time, Marcel Trahan, determined Watkins had died of a heart attack. His report said Watkins had been in the hotel awaiting a flight to England in the company of 'friends.'
Brandes testified he and Bennett had questioned Watkins constantly at the Montreal hotel in an investigation code-named 'Rockbottom.'
The investigation, which began in Paris and moved to London and then Montreal, was prompted by a Soviet defector's allegation that Watkins was blackmailed by the Russian intelligence service which had become aware of his suspected homosexual leanings.
Brandes said he stood by his statement on the original coroner's report that he was 'a friend' of Watkins, having met him one month earlier when the interrogation began.
'We spent a great deal of time together under very close relations, and, yes, I considered him a friend,' Brandes said.
Brandes told the inquiry how Watkins, a retired diplomat who had served as ambassador in the Soviet Union 1954-56, was reminiscing about old days in the diplomatic corps late on a Thanksgiving Monday.
'In the middle of a sentence he reached for a cigarette. He took a deep breath. He gasped and flung his head back in the chair and remained motionless,' Brandes told the inquest.
'For the protection of the man ... and for the protection of operational national matters that had international ramifications,' Brandes said he and his partner sought to avoid any publicity on the death.
In testimony that conflicted with earlier evidence, Brandes said he had left the police investigation of the death entirely in the hands of the local police force, only asking them to avoid 'making it a cause celebre.'
'Because of the man's reputation and background, we did not want to make it apparent that he had had dealings with the RCMP,' Brandes said, adding he did not want 'aspursions to be cast on Mr. Watkins by the circumstances of his death.'
There was constant contact between the diplomat and the RCMP officers -- including evenings spent at the theater, watching television and going for walks -- but intensive interviews were limited to 3-hour sessions, usually once a day.
Brandes said Watkins was 'free to go' and co-operated voluntarily with the investigation.
Because of his failing health, Brandes said, 'We left the pace of the interviews up to him. We held discussions when he felt up to it.'
On the day he died, Watkins underwent a four-hour interrogation. 'It was a follow-up on much of the information we had gleaned from him, backtracking on events that had taken place a few years earlier.'
The inquest will continue Jan. 6, 1982, with an unnamed witness who was identified only as a friend and former colleague of Watkins'. Coroner Dery wished to establish how the friend came to know the details of the 'Rockbottom' investigation.
Dery will also determine whether Bennett would be called to testify before the inquest.
