National Post (National Edition)
Hawkes trial testimony ‘weird,’ defence says
Gross indecency alleged from decades ago
KENTVILLE, N.S. • Brent Hawkes’ lawyer told his gross indecency trial Wednesday that the evidence against the Toronto pastor is “weird,” but the prosecutor contended that doesn’t make it any less plausible.
Defence lawyer Clayton Ruby said in his closing argument that the entire case will be remembered as weird, amid “an abundance of evidence” that the testimony of the witnesses is unreliable.
“The weirdness tells you things that ordinary cases don’t tell you,” Ruby told provincial court Judge Alan Tufts in Kentville, N.S.
A middle-age man testified last week that Hawkes led him down a hallway naked during a drunken get-together at his trailer in Greenwood, N.S., in the mid1970s, and forced oral sex on him in a bedroom when he was about 16 years old. Two other men have also testified they attended the get-together as teenagers, and one said he witnessed Hawkes performing oral sex on the complainant.
Hawkes, a high-profile rights activist, was then a teacher in the Annapolis Valley.
Responding to Ruby, Crown lawyer Bob Morrison said weirdness does not necessarily diminish probability.
“Just because it’s weird doesn’t make it less plausible that it happened. A lot of weird things happen and we see that all the time in provincial court,” said Morrison just after the trial wrapped up for the day.
Ruby said the Crown has “many problems” proving its case beyond a reasonable doubt, including that the alleged offences happened more than 40 years ago and that some witnesses testified they were drunk.
“What the alcohol does ... is it produces contradictory and unreliable accounts of events,” Ruby said, citing testimony from a psychologist he called to the stand on Monday. “The alcohol alone makes these unreliable witnesses.”
Tufts noted that one witness testified the oral sex on the complainant took place in the living room but the complainant testified it occurred in a bedroom.
Morrison said he accepts that those testimonies are contradictory, but believes the witness did in fact observe the sex act but was perhaps mistaken on the details.
Ruby also suggested there was collusion among the witnesses after the alleged offences, but Morrison noted all the witnesses testified they had not spoken with each other since high school and never talked about the day at Hawkes’ trailer.
Tufts reserved his decision until Jan. 18.
Hawkes has categorically denied the allegations and pleaded not guilty to charges of indecent assault and gross indecency.
Originally from Bath, N.B., Hawkes has been senior pastor at the Metropolitan Community Church of Toronto for 38 years. Considered one of the spiritual leaders of Toronto’s gay community, he is also known as a vocal proponent of same-sex marriage, and in 2007 was appointed to the Order of Canada.
JUST BECAUSE IT’S WEIRD DOESN’T MAKE IT LESS PLAUSIBLE.