Emma Woikin

By 1973, Woikin's health began to deteriorate quickly. In November, she was rushed to hospital after collapsing where the doctor who examined her determined she was suffering from anorexia and depression. Her liver was distended and the doctor wrote in her file, "alcohol suspected but not admitted." On April 9, 1974, she was admitted to St. Paul's Hospital with jaundice and an enlarged liver, a common symptom of alcoholism. She became despondent and would not allow visitors. Woikin died in hospital May 22 at the age of 53. An autopsy concluded she had died from "florid fatty cirrhosis with pulmonary edema. The body was that of a thin, limp, jaundiced women."

In 1967, Trofem Kurchenko, a man whom some suspected was Woikin's biological father, died and left her his entire estate. Woikin used the proceeds from her inheritance to visit Russia in 1969. Upon her return, she began drinking heavily. While her family never determined the cause of her abrupt change in behaviour, her brother said in a later interview that he suspected she had been crushed upon witnessing the country's social conditions and her visit had shattered the illusion that the Soviet Union was a paragon of social justice. He noted how she once told her family, "When you get there and see for yourself, it's not true."

There is no indication that Woikin provided the Soviets with any useful information. The cables she shared were largely limited to information that was already widely available in the press. Furthermore, she had not shared the codes used by the British foreign office, something that would have been far more valuable. Indeed, in a 1960s interview, Peter Dwyer, an MI6 agent who had been closely involved in the Gouzenko investigation, noted that the only significant spy uncovered by Gouzenko was Alan Nunn May, a British physicist who supplied the Soviets with a small sample of enriched uranium-233. "The rest," he added, "was crap." However, the Gouzenko Affair damaged relations with the Soviet Union, stoked anti-communist sentiment in Canada, and is considered by historians to have marked the beginning of the Cold War in Canada.

In 1951, Woikin was hired as a legal secretary at Kyle, Ferguson, and Hnatyshynat, a law firm that included John Hnatyshyn, who would later become a senator, and his son, Ray Hnatyshyn, who would go on to serve as governor general of Canada. For years following her release from prison, RCMP officers dressed in civilian clothing would show up to ask her colleagues about her political activities and whether she had made any comments about the government. She later moved to another law firm, Cuelenaere, Beaubier, Walters, Kendall and Fisher.

On March 5, 1949, Woikin married Lucas "Louis" Sawula, a Ukrainian-born employee of the Canadian National Railway, and became Emma Sawula.

Woikin was released from prison in August 1948 at the age of 27 after serving more than two years. Her sentence was reduced for good behaviour at a rate of six days for each month served in the first year of imprisonment and 10 days for each month served in the second, for a total of 34 weeks. She promptly returned to Saskatchewan and, in January 1949, she moved to Saskatoon where she found work at a drugstore.

In early 1946, Gouzenko's defection still remained a secret. King had been hesitant to get involved out of fear of damaging relations with the Soviet Union and undermining talks about nuclear weapons control. Furthermore, Woikin was a particular embarrassment since he was also serving as Secretary of State for External Affairs and her activities had taken place under his watch. The federal government's legal counsel had also determined it did not have sufficient evidence to prosecute most of the individuals identified by Gouzenko. In addition, the Soviet Union had largely ceased its espionage activities within Canada following Gouzenko's defection and the suspects posed no immediate threat to Canadian security.

However, on February 3, 1946, the defection was made public when Drew Pearson, an NBC Radio host, disclosed that a Soviet agent had surrendered to Canadian authorities and that Canada was quietly investigating a Soviet spy ring. On February 5, King hurriedly launched a royal commission – chaired by Supreme Court Justices Roy Kellock and Robert Taschereau – to investigate Gouzenko’s information and offer recommendations on how to counter Soviet espionage.

At around 6:00 a.m. on February 15, 1946, four RCMP officers showed up at Woikin's rooming house on Somerset Street East. Woikin was arrested along with 10 other suspects in a series of raids across Ottawa, Montreal, and Kingston. Two others were arrested the following day.

On March 4, 1946, the Commission released an interim report publicly identifying four of the detainees: Woikin, Gordon Lunan, Edward Wilfred Mazerall, and Kathleen Mary Willsher. That same day, all four were released from Rockcliffe and then re-arrested and brought to an arraignment in Ottawa. Woikin was charged with two counts of violating the Official Secrets Act: conspiracy to provide secret information to the Soviet Union and having provided the information. Each of the two charges carried a maximum sentence of seven years' imprisonment – to be served concurrently or consecutively at the judge's discretion – and a fine of up to $2,000. The Crown had determined it could not pursue charges of treason since the information had been shared with the Soviet Union, which was Canada's ally at the time.

Woikin's espionage activities began sometime in late spring 1945 when she was visiting the Sokolovs in their King Street home. During the evening, Sokolov began asking Woikin about the information that was moving between London and Ottawa and suggested she pass along anything that might be of interest to the Soviet Union. Woikin responded that she would consider the matter, but scoffed at the idea of accepting money in return. She called Sokolov two days later, accepting his proposition.

Woikin began passing messages to the Sokolovs in late May 1945. She would take decoded messages received at the Department of External Affairs and commit them to memory. She would later transcribe them – almost word for word – and pass them on to Lida once per month. During one of their encounters, Lida handed her an envelope with the words, "a gift" written on it. When Woikin arrived home, she discovered the envelope contained $50, nearly a month's salary for her. She used the money to purchase a train ticket to Blaine Lake, her first visit to her hometown since arriving in Ottawa nearly two years earlier.

In August 1945, following the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, the Soviet Embassy ramped up its secrecy measures as it redoubled its efforts to obtain secret information regarding the Manhattan Project. Rather that meet Lida in person, Woikin was instructed by telephone to tape her transcribed notes to the underside of a toilet cover in a dentist's office across from the Lord Elgin Hotel. However, when a Russian agent – the embassy chauffeur, Captain Gourshkov – arrived to collect the documents, Woikin approached and greeted him in Russian, ultimately defeating the purpose of a dead drop system designed to avoid direct contact. Following the unexpected rendezvous, embassy staff decided to return to the original system where Woikin would meet directly with Lida. Woikin delivered her final batch of messages – four cables that had been received between August 24 and August 31 – sometime on either September 4 or September 5.

Woikin remained oblivious to the investigation. In mid-September, 1945, Lida told Woikin that they could no longer meet due to "some trouble," but she did not elaborate further. On September 28, Woikin was transferred to back to the passport division – without explanation – where she no longer had access to secret information.

Woikin continued on as normal. In September 1945, she enrolled at Ottawa Technical School for night courses. She spent two nights per week studying mathematics and English literature. Another evening during the week was spent studying oil painting under a private instructor. In January 1946, Woikin went to the Soviet Embassy to apply – unsuccessfully – for Soviet citizenship.

Woikin appeared – without a lawyer – before the Royal Commission on Espionage on February 22. She was not informed that she would face criminal charges or that her testimony could later be used against her. She was questioned about her relationship with Sokolov, her application to transfer to the Canadian embassy in Moscow, her attempt to procure Soviet citizenship, and the August 1945 incident where she left the transcribed cables in the toilet tank.

In February 1944, she was transferred to the Cipher Division. She worked as a cipher clerk, coding and decoding cables to and from London and Washington. Her salary was raised to $57 per month.

Woikin's social life revolved largely around Ottawa's Russian community and, in particular, the Federation of Russian Canadians where employees of the Soviet Embassy had an active presence. She developed a fascination with Russia and became an avid reader of Leo Tolstoy's works. In March 1944, she applied unsuccessfully with the Department of External Affairs to be sent overseas to Russia as a typist.

On May 1, 1944, May Day in the Soviet Union, Woikin attended a dinner party where she met Major Vsevolod Sokolov, a Russian army officer from the Soviet Embassy in Ottawa, and his wife Lida Sokolov. Over the next year, the husband-and-wife team cultivated a relationship with Woikin. They would exchange gifts and, at one point, Woikin presented Lida a watercolour sketch she had painted.

In September 1944, Igor Gouzenko, a 25-year-old cipher clerk at the Soviet Embassy, learned that he was to be recalled to the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union had been devastated by the Second World War and the standard of living and freedoms afforded by his post in Canada could not compare to those in his home country. His superior, Colonel Nikolai Zabotin, was able to delay his return by insisting he could not be spared until a replacement could be found and trained. In July 1945, however, his replacement arrived from Moscow and Gouzenko's departure seemed inevitable. Eager to avoid repatriation, he gathered more than 100 documents that implicated a number of Canadian civil servants – including the four messages Woikin had delivered in early September – and defected from the embassy on September 5. Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King responded later that year by signing a top-secret order-in-council (P.C. 6444) passed under the authority of the War Measures Act. The order directed the Minister of Justice, Louis St. Laurent, to use whatever means necessary to investigate Gouzenko’s claim. It allowed police to detain suspects without evidence and suspended the suspects' right to legal counsel. Woikin was placed under surveillance.

For six months following her husband's death, Woikin found herself too weak to work. She eventually moved to Marcelin where she stayed briefly at a convent. She continued her education, studying typing, bookkeeping, and stenography and, by the end of her first year in Marcelin, completed a two-year commercial course. In the summer of 1943, she moved to Saskatoon where she found janitorial work at St. Paul's Hospital.

As the Second World War raged on, the federal government was rapidly expanding the civil service. In the summer of 1943, Woikin visited a federal government office in Saskatoon where she wrote a civil service exam. In August, she received a telegram offering her a job as a typist for the passport division of the Department of External Affairs with a monthly salary of $52. She moved to Ottawa the following month, arriving on September 10. Upon starting at the Department of External Affairs, she was given an employee information form where she declared herself a British subject of Russian origin.

Woikin faced two major tragedies in relatively quick succession. She became pregnant in her second year of marriage. She went into labour on May 20, 1939; however, what would be the couple's only child – a boy – died at birth the next morning. Bill Woikin later developed debilitating headaches. He may have suffered from depression and, at one point, remarked to Woikin how he could no longer tolerate the pain. On March 18, 1942, he hanged himself at the age of 28. He had only 75 cents at the time of his death. Bill Woikin had not sought medical treatment due to the cost and Canada's lack of free health care at the time and, consequently, Woikin blamed the Canadian health care system for her husband's death.

In 1937, at the age of 16, Woikin married William "Bill" Woikin, a Doukhobor from Langham. Life in the Prairies was exceptionally difficult at the time; Saskatchewan had been particularly hard-hit by the Great Depression and an ongoing drought meant 1937 saw some of the worst crop yields in the province's history. The couple's income averaged five dollars per month.

Emma Woikin (née Konkin; December 30, 1920 – May 22, 1974) was a Canadian civil servant who, in 1946, was convicted of spying on behalf of the Soviet Union. Woikin was one of the Canadians identified as spies by Igor Gouzenko when he defected from the Soviet Embassy in Ottawa in September 1945 in what became known as the Gouzenko Affair. Woikin was sentenced to two-and-a-half years at Kingston Penitentiary, becoming the first woman imprisoned for espionage in Canada.

Woikin was born Emma Konkin on December 30, 1920 in Blaine Lake, Saskatchewan to Alex and Pearl Konkin, the youngest of five children. Her parents were Doukhobors who had fled Russia in 1899 and her family spoke Russian in the home. Her mother died when Woikin was 15 following a series of strokes.