As a Nova Scotia Supreme Court judge sentenced Lyle Howe to three years in a federal prison for sexual assault last week, one of the former lawyer’s supporters called out, “It’s a sad day for justice.”
Howe’s lawyer and the Crown jointly recommended the three-year sentence, and justice Joseph Kennedy agreed. Additionally Howe’s DNA will be collected and his name will appear on a sex-offender registry, the judge ordered.
On May 31, a jury found Howe guilty of sexual assault but cleared him on a charge of administering a noxious substance. The verdict spurred a multiracial protest of about 75 people who believed racism played a role in Howe’s case. A smaller group of supporters attended his sentencing.
Social worker Robert Wright says Howe’s sentence is too harsh. Every step in the judicial process is influenced by race, he explains, so cases like this one must be viewed through a racial lens.
Wright says the mostly white legal system views black men as more dangerous and less able to rehabilitate than white men. He questions whether the courts would have given a promising white lawyer as much jail time as a troublemaking black lawyer like Howe. “I’ve got to say, I don’t think the white lawyer would have been sentenced the same way.”
Other than the question of consent, much of the trial evidence was un-contradicted, justice Kennedy said. Howe testified he had oral, anal and vaginal sex with the victim and that she consented.
The victim said that last part wasn’t true. The jury believed her, finding she did not consent. Howe knew she was not consenting, “and that is sexual assault,” Kennedy said.
Sentences must be similar to those for similar offenders in similar circumstances, and generally a case like this wouldn’t attract less than two years in prison. The Crown cited similar cases with sentences up to five years. Howe’s lawyer, Phil Star, said he agreed to the three-year recommendation to save his client from serving a longer term.
Kennedy agreed with the Crown that an aggravating factor in the case was Howe’s use of his position as a lawyer to gain the victim’s trust. She believed he wouldn’t do anything to jeopardize his career, the judge said. “Well it turned out that he would and he did.” On the other hand, he said, Howe had no criminal record and had already been suspended as a lawyer.
Wright believes judges should start asking for “impact of race and culture assessments”—reports on how the African Nova Scotian experience may have influenced a person’s involvement with crime. He has already provided a couple of these reports to judges in Nova Scotia, though, he says, “it will take a judge who already has some degree of racial analysis to order such a thing.”
According to the mayor’s 2014 roundtable on violence report, people of African descent are overrepresented in charges in HRM, in remand and sentenced incarceration status at the Central Nova Scotia Correctional Facility, in the five Correctional Services Canada Atlantic prisons and in the provincial youth prison at Waterville. “The over-representation exceeded the basic demographic standard minimally by a factor of four,” the report states, and has not diminished since the 2008 roundtable on violence. —Hilary Beaumont
This article appears in Aug 7-13, 2014.
When all else fails and the facts are against you, play the race card.
“Sentences must be similar to those for similar offenders in similar circumstances, and generally a case like this wouldn’t attract less than two years in prison.”
If a case like this generally wouldn’t attract less than two years in prison, I would have to say three years is most definitely a similar sentence. Howe’s lawyer also jointly recommended the sentence.
Now if the mostly white legal system views black men as more dangerous and less able to rehabilitate than white men then its a good thing Lyle Howe was in front of a jury. You know, a jury of HIS peers.
Confronted with the facts of racism so clearly presented in this welcome article, the defiant smugness – and yes racism – of the two previous commenters just makes you shake your head.
Never mind, Hilary, keep the good journalism coming!!!
The content of this article does not match the title IMO. I was expecting some kind of stats, evidence or compare/contrast between similar crimes, offenders demographics and their sentences. The product of some digging on canlii or news archives or court reports. This article just quoted one person’s opinion (without facts) then one stat that doesn’t have a direct relationship to the title/ alleged point of the article.
This is lazy, sensationalist journalism… not acceptable when you are talking about such a serious issue.
Finally a win for the NS justice system, we put a rapist behind bars. Howe is/was a lawyer and is/was well versed in the legal definition of consent. He thumbed his nose at the law and, is now getting his just desserts.
Don’t drop the soap, Bitch!!!
Being Black means nothing
I read a statement online where a person named Guy stated in relation to the Lyle Howe matter that: “it means nothing that Mr. Howe is Black”. There was a response to this statement and I quoted the statement below. It’s kinda interesting.
“This is a scary sentiment and speaks to exactly what Black Nova Scotian’s are afraid of in terms of attitudes of some (emphasis on some) Nova Scotians. “Being black means absolutely nothing”. That’s why he didn’t have a single Black Nova Scotian on his jury panel (out of 200 people). About 3% of the population in NS is Black so if it was a random selection there should have been 6 Black Nova Scotian’s out of 200 and there were zero. That’s because as Guy says “Being black means absolutely nothing”. It means nothing in terms of getting a “jury of your peers” and it “means nothing” that there has never been a Black Nova Scotia judge at our Supreme Court, nor at the federal level. And it means nothing that Mr. Howe was really the first high profile Black defense attorney in Nova Scotia and his career is taken away. All of this “means nothing” to some (again emphasis on some) Nova Scotian’s. Which is why to this jury, his account of what happened “means nothing”. Also the fact that she had the same amount of alcohol as he did “means nothing” (and she outweighed him by 50 lbs and was a more seasoned drinker). The fact that there were no drugs in her system “means nothing’. The video of her walking in the house during a period of time that she claims to “be fuzzy” despite seeming to have all of her faculties “means nothing”. The fact that she did the exact same thing as him (i.e. had sex with a person that had a few drinks) “Means nothing”. She is a victim and he deserves to go to jail despite the fact that they did the EXACT same thing. And the scary thing is that some people like Guy state that this “means nothing”.”
Well then, I guess If I ever have the misfortune to be wrongfully accused AND convicted of a crime I didn’t commit, the jury of my “peers” will have to be of Scottish and/or Irish dissent?
My guess is that you would be singing a similar tune if, hypothetically speaking, the situation were reversed and a “black” woman was sexually assaulted by a prominent “white” defense lawyer. You would be puking up the same “means nothing” crap, which is what it is (crap), in relation to the light sentence of ONLY three years. That’s the beauty of accusing someone, or, an entire “system” of being racist. No matter what the outcome, a bunch of useless, random “stats” can be thrown out there to muddy the waters and blur the lines. Maybe since there are no “black” bee keepers in NS, the system is racist and Lyle Howe should be set free.