PASTOR BRENT HAWKES NOT GUILTY OF GROSS INDECENCY, INDECENT ASSAULT
Jan 31, 2017
By Bob Komsic
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A rights activist who officiated at former NDP leader Jack Layton’s state funeral in 2011, the prominent Toronto pastor had pleaded not guilty to the charges.
(Andrew Vaughan / The Canadian Press)
They stemmed from events in the mid-1970s when Brent Hawkes was a teacher in Nova Scotia’s Annapolis Valley.
In handing down the verdict, the provincial court judge said he found significant inconsistencies in the testimony of the witnesses.
Originally from Bath, New Brunswick, Hawkes has been senior pastor at the Metropolitan Community Church in downtown Toronto for 38 years.