Gerda Munsinger is shown in this March 15, 1966 file photo. Munsinger, an alleged spy for Russiaês KGB, shared the bed of Conservative defence minister Pierre Sevigny for three years at the end of the 1950s - a troubling arrangement that was brought to the attention of prime minister John Diefenbaker, who quietly buried it.
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Canadian spy scandals: Key players
aleysha haniff
Globe and Mail Update
Published
Last updated
One slept with several cabinet ministers. Another sold info to the Soviets to fund his expensive tastes. Take a look back at Canada's other spies.
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Igor Gouzenko (left), the former Russian code clerk who revealed a Soviet spy ring operating in Canada at the end of the Second World War, is shown during an interview April 27, 1954.
The Gouzenko Affair
Igor Gouzenko received intelligence training at the beginning of the Second World War, becoming a cipher clerk at the Soviet legation in Ottawa in 1943. Two years later, after he found out that he and his family were being sent to the USSR, he defected and went public with his knowledge of Soviet-operated spy networks on Canadian soil, armed with documents taken from the embassy to prove his assertions.
No one took Mr. Gouzenko seriously until a Soviet attempt to recapture him. Afterward, 12 suspects were arrested and put before a Royal Commission.
The commissioners, also using Mr. Gouzenko's testimony and the documents he took, confirmed the existence of a spy ring in July of 1946, adding that the group targeted atomic secrets, among other goals.
Mr. Gouzenko was given a new identity. Even his death, which apparently occurred from natural causes, was kept secret.
(Source: The Canadian Encyclopedia)
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Gerda Munsinger is shown in this March 15, 1966 file photo. Munsinger, an alleged spy for Russiaês KGB, shared the bed of Conservative defence minister Pierre Sevigny for three years at the end of the 1950s - a troubling arrangement that was brought to the attention of prime minister John Diefenbaker, who quietly buried it.
A homegrown sex scandal
Suspected Soviet spy Gerda Munsinger had several relationships with Tory ministers in John Diefenbaker's cabinet in the 1950s, including associate defence minister Pierre Sévigny. The RCMP believed Russian spies were listening in on the pair's pillow talk from the apartment below.
When presented with proof of the affair, Mr. Diefenbaker kept Mr. Sévigny in his cabinet post until the he resigned in 1963. Ms. Munsinger had been shuttled out of the country the year before.
The story stayed under wraps until 1966. Lester Pearson's minority Liberal government was under attack by Mr. Diefenbaker, now the official opposition leader. Mr. Diefenbaker and Minister of Justice Lucien Cardin butted heads, and the wounded Mr. Cardin resigned – telling the country that former Tory ministers had spent time with the prostitute and supposed honey-trap.
A judicial inquiry later absolved Mr. Sévigny of any wrongdoing.
(Source: Globe and Mail Archives)
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Laval University professor Hugh Hambleton speaks with reporters about RCMP investigations.
Professor turned spy
In December, 1982, former NATO adviser Hugh Hambleton suddenty pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 10 years in a British prison for spending three decades spying for the Sovets.
Canadian officials had decided not to prosecute Mr. Hambleton in 1980. Later, they said they had no knowledge at the time that Mr. Hambleton had shared NATO secrets.
An economics professor at Laval University, Mr. Hambleton admitted to spying on an on-again, off-again basis even before his trial, and said he also provided information on Latin American and Middle Eastern economics.
(Source: Globe and Mail Archives)
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JUNE 9, 1983: James Morrison, 67, a former RCMP officer who once worked as an agent under the code name "Long Knife" was released on $50,000 bond bail here in Ottawa June 9, pending trial on three charges he passed on secrets to the Soviets almost 30 years ago.
Living the good life
In May, 1986, former RCMP corporal James Morrison was sentenced to 18 months in a provincial jail for selling secrets to the Soviets 30 years prior.
He pleaded guilty to breaching the Official Secrets Act in January, 1986. The Crown dropped the other two charges against him in exchange for the guilty plea.
Mr. Morrison first confessed in 1957, a year after committing espionage. He was dismissed from the force after being interrogated, but no charges were laid until 1983 after his activities were revealed in a book and Mr. Morrison appeared in media interviews.
Mr. Morrison, once known under the code name "Long Knife," fell into espionage to finance his expensive lifestyle.
(Source: Globe and Mail Archives)
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Undated file photograph of John Watkins, late Canadian ambassador in Moscow who is one of two Canadian envoys named in a book published in London, England in March 1981, as having worked for Soviet intelligence. Mr. Watkins died in a Montreal hotel room on October 12, 1964 while being interrogated by the Mounties.
A questionable death
On Oct. 12, 1964, former Canadian ambassador to the Soviet Union John Watkins died in a Montreal-area hotel room. But he wasn't alone – two RCMP intelligence officers were interrogating him on suspicion of espionage when he had a heart attack.
An inquest was ordered into Mr. Watkins death 17 years later. A coroner ruled he died of natural causes.
Mr. Watkins was Canada's first ambassador to Moscow, from 1954 to 1956. He admitted to being trapped by Soviet secret police because he was gay.
According to the RCMP's Leslie James Bennett, a retired head of RCMP counter-intelligence, interviews showed that Mr. Watkins had indeed been compromised, but there was no proof that he had worked for the KGB. Mr. Bennett was present when Mr. Watkins died. (Incidentally, Mr. Bennett retired from the force after being questioned about possible espionage.)
(Source: Globe and Mail Archives)
