Rev. Brent Hawkes Trial Hears Testimony about Fallibility of Memories
By Aly Thomson
Brent Hawkes’ gross indecency trial heard testimony Monday on the nature and fallibility of memory. Timothy Moore, chair of the psychology department at York University’s Glendon College, told the judge that memories are by nature “constructive and reconstructive.” Moore says people often recall events differently, and time “can alter or change or misdirect the nature of” memories. “Memories can undergo a substantial amount of modification over time and the longer the time, the more opportunity for misinformation to occur,” he said in Kentville, N.S., provincial court. Hawkes is accused of performing sex acts on a teenage boy more than 40 years ago when the Toronto pastor was a teacher in his mid-20s in Nova Scotia’s Annapolis Valley. Hawkes, a prominent rights activist, has denied the allegations and pleaded not guilty to indecent assault and gross indecency. Last Tuesday, a man testified that when he was about 16 years old, Hawkes led him down a hallway during a drunken get-together at his trailer in Greenwood, N.S., and forced oral sex on him in a bedroom. Moore said it is well-known liquor can impair memories, and an alcoholic blackout can lead to their fragmentation and to assumptions that could be conflated with actual memories. “It would be improbable that the person would be aware of the fragmentation of their memories,” he said. But he also said that some are true memories. “Some of our memories are recollected with high fidelity. I don’t think anyone would dispute that,” he said.
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