What factors are considered in determining whether a witness is truthful or accurate?

A number of the factors, many of them identified in Bradshaw v. Stenner, 2010 BCSC 1398, at paras. 186–87, often play an important role in assessing whether the evidence of a witness is not only truthful, but accurate: • the capacity and opportunity of the witness to observe the events at issue; • their ability to remember those events; • the ability of the witness to resist being influenced by their interest in recalling events; or whether the witness has a motive to misrepresent the events; • the internal consistency of the witness’s evidence, meaning whether their testimony changed between direct and cross-examination, or whether there are inconsistencies between prior statements, discovery evidence and his or her evidence at trial; • the external consistency of the witness’s evidence, meaning whether the witness’s evidence harmonizes with or is contradicted by other evidence, particularly independent or undisputed evidence; • whether their evidence seems unreasonable, unlikely, or implausible, bearing in mind the probabilities affecting the case; and • the witness’s demeanour, meaning the way they presented while testifying.