CANADA
Toronto Star
By ALY THOMSON
The Canadian Press
Mon., Nov. 21, 2016
KENTVILLE, N.S.— 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.
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