MONTREAL -- John Watkins acted like a man with little time left to live shortly before he died during RCMP questioning, a friend of Watkins told an inquest into the death of the one-time Canadian ambassador to Moscow.
John Holmes, who preceded Watkins as Canadian charge d'affaires in Moscow, testified Wednesday Watkins had been depressed shortly before his death 17 years ago because of a prior heart attack and was suffering severe stress from repeated RCMP inquiries.
'He didn't go into a great deal of detail, just enough for me to realize that it was a very stressful situation,' Holmes said of a conversation in which Watkins told him he was under investigation as a possible security risk.
Watkins acted like a man 'who felt he didn't have much longer to live, because of his heart attack,' Holmes said.
Watkins died of an apparent heart attack in a suburban Montreal hotel room Oct. 12, 1964 while being questioned by RCMP officers Henry Brandes and Leslie James Bennett.
The month-long investigation was launched when two Russian defectors reported Watkins had been blackmailed by Russian intelligence agents in connection with homosexual activities during his stint as ambassador to the Soviet Union from 1954 to 1956.
The RCMP began the interrogation in Paris, where Watkins was recovering from a heart attack in the home of former governor general Jules Leger. The questioning then moved to London where Watkins met his old friend Holmes and told him about the investigation.
Holmes told coroner Stanislas Dery he 'took it as a joke of some sort' when Watkins told him he was being questioned by the RCMP.
'Then when we were alone he told me something that made me realize that it was more serious than I thought. It upset him, there is no doubt about that.'
Holmes said that despite Watkins' obvious anxiety, he thought his friend had been on amicable terms with his interrogators. But, he said, Watkins 'made friends with everybody.'
'He was the most beloved officer in the whole foreign service ... entertaining company, a wonderful raconteur, witty, cheerful.'
Brandes told authorities at the time of Watkins' death that he was 'a friend of the deceased' and did not mention Watkins' status as a former diplomat or identify himself as an RCMP officer.
The statement was a factor in then-coroner Marcel Trahan's decision not to hold an inquest. Trahan has not been called to testify before the inquiry.
Dery adjourned the inquest indefinitely while he considers whether to call for testimony from Bennett, who now lives in Australia.
