Ken Watkin

Royal Military College of Canada (Bachelor of Laws; 1976),
Queen's University (Master of Laws), and
Harvard Law School (Visiting Fellow at the Human Rights Program)
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"Assessing Proportionality: Moral Complexity and Legal Rules", 8 Yearbook of International Humanitarian Law 3, 2007
Warriors without rights? : combatants, unprivileged belligerents, and the struggle over legitimacy, 2005
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| predecessor = Maj. Gen. Jerry Pitzul
| successor = Brig. Gen. B. Blaise Cathcart
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| spouse = Maureen

He was promoted to brigadier general and appointed JAG effective April 2006, for a four year term. In June 2010, the Israeli government appointed Watkin to be one of two international observers serving on an Israeli commission of inquiry looking into the events surrounding an Israeli raid on the Mavi Marmara.

Watkin was born in Kingston, Ontario, a non identical triplet, along with a brother (Kerry) and sister (Kathy); he also has an older brother (Robert). He and his siblings attended Loyalist Collegiate.

Ken Watkin started his career as an infantry officer in the Royal Canadian Regiment. His first tour of duty after graduating from The Royal Military College was with the Royal Canadian Regiment battalion in Gagetown New Brunswick. Watkin served as a Canadian Forces legal officer, starting in 1982, for 24 years prior to his appointment to JAG. He was trial counsel at courts martial and appellate counsel before the Canadian Court Martial Appeal Court. He also questioned Labbe's "openness in reporting to higher headquarters." He advised the Canadian Forces command that they could be "criminally negligent" if they were to transfer detainees to a risk of torture in Afghan hands. Watkin declined to answer questions on the basis of solicitor client privilege when called to testify in Canada's House of Commons, saying that the privilege owed to the Government of Canada prevented him answering a number of the House's questions. Craig Scott, an Osgoode Hall Law School professor of international human rights law, said: "If there's this paper trail of good legal advice going against what the government is doing, it's even more likely (the federal government violated its obligations under international law)." On the Commission were former Israeli Supreme Court Justice, Jacob Turkel, and former Technion University President, Amos Horev, as well as two other members added in July 2010. (Shabtai Rosenne, Bar Ilan University Professor of International Law, also served on the Commission from its establishment until his death on 21 September 2010.) In addition, the Commission had two foreign observers, Watkin and former First Minister of Northern Ireland, David Trimble, who took part in hearings and discussions, but did not vote on the final conclusions.