根据新斯科舍省人权委员会的报告，该机构在惩戒律师时存在“种族双重标准”——这一现象在莱尔·豪（Lyle Howe）的案例中尤为明显。莱尔·豪是一名黑人律师，他在2017年被吊销了律师执照。
A report from the Nova Scotia Human Rights Commission says the organization that regulates the province’s legal profession has a “racial double standard” when it comes to disciplining lawyers, including in the case of Lyle Howe, a Black lawyer who was disbarred in 2017.
多年来，莱尔·豪一直坚称自己是系统性种族主义的受害者。这位前哈利法克斯辩护律师曾向人权委员会投诉新斯科舍省律师协会，而2025年8月的一份调查报告证实了他的指控属实。
Howe has argued for years that he is a victim of systemic racism. The former Halifax defence lawyer filed complaints against the Nova Scotia Barristers’ Society with the human rights commission, and an investigator’s report in August 2025 concluded there is merit to his claims.
报告指出：“证据表明，白人律师在犯下严重不当行为时往往受到较轻微的处罚；相比之下，黑人律师或少数族裔律师即使犯下类似或较轻的过错，也会面临更严厉的惩罚。”
“The evidence indicates that white lawyers often received more lenient consequences for serious misconduct. Conversely, Black and racialized lawyers faced harsher penalties even for comparable or lesser infractions,” the report reads.
报告建议将此事提交给一个由多名成员组成的调查委员会进行进一步调查。
The report recommended the issue be referred to a full board of inquiry. In February, the chief judge of the Nova Scotia Provincial Court, Perry Borden, named a three-member panel to conduct hearings.
今年2月，新斯科舍省法院首席法官佩里·博登（Perry Borden）任命了一个三人小组来负责此次听证会的筹备工作。
Ordinarily, the process leading up to a board of inquiry is confidential, as is the human rights commission report. But the barristers’ society has asked for a judicial review of the decision to order a hearing.
通常情况下，调查委员会成立前的相关程序以及人权委员会的报告都是保密的；但律师协会要求对这一决定进行司法审查。作为司法审查的一部分，该调查报告已被公开。
As part of that review process, the investigator’s report has become a matter of public record. The findings in her report were welcome news to Howe.
这份报告的结论对莱尔·豪来说是个好消息。他在本月早些时候接受采访时说：“报告不仅证实了我所遭受的歧视确实存在，而且调查人员还深入研究了过去25年来其他黑人律师的遭遇情况——这种调查方式是我自己无法做到的。”
“She found that not only was I discriminated against in the fashion that I described but she went in and investigated in a way that I wouldn't have been able to in terms of looking at how other Black lawyers were dealt with for the last 25 years,” Howe said in an interview earlier this month.
豪在新斯科舍省律师协会纪律委员会经过60天听证后，被裁定犯有专业失当和专业能力不足等过错，并被取消执业资格。听证小组裁定，针对豪的投诉真实可信。投诉称，豪曾将自己安排在同一时间前往两个或多个法院出庭，未妥善记录客户案卷，并提供劣质服务。
Howe was disbarred by a disciplinary committee of the Nova Scotia Barristers' Society after he was found guilty of professional misconduct and professional incompetence following a 60-day hearing. The panel ruled that complaints against Howe were credible. The complaints alleged Howe scheduled himself to be in two or more courts at the same time, poorly documented his clients' files and provided poor quality of service.
报告将律师协会对豪的处理，与协会对其他律师——其中大多数是白人律师——的处理方式进行了比较。
The report compared the treatment Howe received from the society with how it dealt with other – mostly white – lawyers.
报告尤其审视了律师协会如何处理知名布雷顿角辩护律师纳什·布罗根一案。豪被取消执业资格，至今仍不得从事法律工作；而在协会纪律小组裁定布罗根犯有失当和能力不足过错后，他仅被停业六个月。
In particular, the report considered how the society dealt with prominent Cape Breton defence lawyer Nash Brogan. While Howe was disbarred and is still not allowed to practise law, Brogan received a six-month suspension after a disciplinary panel of the society found him guilty of misconduct and incompetence.
调查人员审查了2000年至2023年间60多起纪律处分案件。对豪的处分是其中最严厉的之一。
The investigator canvassed more than 60 disciplinary cases from 2000 to 2023. The sanctions against Howe were among the harshest of them all.
豪指责律师协会虚伪，声称协会对他的立场与协会对鲁克报告的反应形成鲜明对比。
Howe is accusing the barristers’ society of being hypocritical, asserting that their position toward him is in stark contrast to their reaction to the Ruck report.
两年前，哈利法克斯律师、前监察专员道格拉斯·鲁克提交了一份题为《重获信任》的报告，其中包含21项建议，旨在应对新斯科舍省司法系统中的种族主义问题。
Two years ago, Halifax lawyer and former ombudsman Douglas Ruck produced a report, “Regaining Trust,” which contained 21 recommendations for tackling racism in the Nova Scotia justice system.
豪说：“律师协会自己在2024年表示，我们接受所有建议，包括重新审视黑人律师所受待遇的建议。”
“The bar society themselves said, in 2024, we accept all of the recommendations, including the recommendation to go back and look at how Black lawyers were treated,” Howe said.
“然而，他们仍有机会通过人权委员会来解决这个问题——毕竟人权委员会正是专门负责调查此类歧视指控的机构。但他们非但没有接受这一事实并承诺会审查自身的程序以确认其公正性，反而想尽一切办法阻挠调查的进行，甚至试图阻止成立调查委员会。”
“And yet they have an opportunity through the human rights commission who's the very body that's designed to look into something like this, allegations of discrimination, and instead of accepting that and saying, well, we're going to examine our processes and see if they were fair, they're fighting it every way they can, they're trying to prevent me from having a board of inquiry.”
本月早些时候，律师协会的临时执行主任詹妮弗·平克（Jennifer Pink）在接受 CBC 新闻采访时指出：“NSBS 强烈认为，NSHRC 的决定是不合理的，这一决定源于存在缺陷的决策过程；相关细节已在律师协会于 2026 年 3 月 4 日向新斯科舍省最高法院提交的司法审查申请书中详细说明。”平克还补充说，豪（Howe）关于种族偏见的指控已在法庭上得到了验证。
In a statement to CBC News earlier this month, Jennifer Pink, interim executive director of the barristers’ society, said “The NSBS vigorously contends that the NSHRC's decision was unreasonable and emerged from a flawed decision-making process on multiple grounds, as detailed in the Society’s Notice for Judicial Review filed with the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia on March 4, 2026.” Pink goes on to note in her statement that Howe’s allegations of racial bias have been tested in the courts. “Nova Scotia’s highest court found no evidence to support his allegations,” Pink wrote.
“新斯科舍省的最高法院并未发现任何能够支持这些指控的证据，”平克写道，“法院进一步认定：‘Ruck 报告’并不能证明豪的律师资格被剥夺是由于系统性种族主义造成的。此后豪向加拿大最高法院提出的上诉申请也被驳回了。”
“Further, it concluded that ‘the Ruck Report provides no basis for suggesting that Mr. Howe’s disbarment was marred by systemic racism’. Subsequent applications by Mr. Howe for Leave to Appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada were denied.” But Howe said the focus of the human rights commission is very different from the focus applied by the various courts.
豪表示：“人权委员会的调查重点与各级法院的关注点截然不同；他们可能会试图辩称‘莱尔（Lyle）确实犯下了那些恶劣行为，但这只是次要问题，我们无法因此取消他的律师资格（因为这一决定早已作出）’。我们现在能做的，就是审查律师协会的行为。”
“Now, if we go in front of a human rights commission, the focal point is the bar society discriminated against me,” Howe said. “So they might try to say Lyle's done all these horrible things, that's fine, but that's in the background and we can't disbar Lyle, it's already been done. So all we can do now is look at your actions, the bar society's actions.” He says an aspect of his past looms over his battles with the society. In 2014, Howe was convicted of sexual assault in a high-profile jury trial.
豪指出，自己过去的一些负面经历一直影响着他与律师协会之间的纠纷。2014 年，豪曾在一场备受关注的陪审团审判中被判性侵罪名成立。
“So they might try to say Lyle's done all these horrible things, that's fine, but that's in the background and we can't disbar Lyle, it's already been done. So all we can do now is look at your actions, the bar society's actions.” He says an aspect of his past looms over his battles with the society. In 2014, Howe was convicted of sexual assault in a high-profile jury trial.
虽然上诉推翻了定罪，但豪说：“在我看来毫无疑问，他们的（纪律小组的）印象在我进入纪律程序前刚刚击败的那些指控的影响下已经受到了玷污。”“任何人都会因此受到玷污。”
While the conviction was overturned on appeal, “There's no question in my mind that their [the disciplinary panel’s] image of me was tainted by the charges that I just beat before I went into this disciplinary proceeding,” Howe said. “Anybody would be tainted by that.”
他说，他仍然会遇到一些人，他们因为性侵指控而认为他被吊销了执照。
He said he still encounters people who assume he was disbarred because of the sexual assault allegation.
在等待法院就律师协会的司法复核请求作出裁决期间，豪显得有些达观。
As he waits for the court to rule on the society’s request for a judicial review, Howe is somewhat philosophical.
他说：“我永远无法恢复原状；我们永远夺不回那些年华，我已经脱离执业10年了。如果不是因为歧视，我的职业生涯本会走上另一条轨迹，我们永远无法弥补这一点。我永远无法因所失去的一切得到赔偿，我清楚这一点。”但他表示，如果他的抗争能带来改变，让未来的黑人律师不再面临同样的障碍，那就值得了。
“I'll never be made whole; we're never going to get the years back, I've been out of practice for 10 years,” he said. “The trajectory that my career would have been on had it not been for discrimination, we're never going to fix that. I'm never going to be compensated for what I've lost and I know that.” But he said if his fight brings about change so Black lawyers in the future don’t face the same obstacles, it would be worth it.
除了自己的经历，他对这一结果还有个人利害关系：他的三个儿子中有一个正考虑上法学院。
He has a personal stake in that outcome beyond his own story: one of his three sons is considering going to law school.
“我告诉他不该当律师，最好当科学家或医生。但既然父母都是律师，我觉得他大概知道自己已经一只脚踏进门了，你知道，这让我害怕，因为亲历我所经历的一切是一回事，但我不想让其他人也像我一样受苦。”
“I tell him that he shouldn't be a lawyer, he should probably be a scientist or a doctor maybe. But with two parents that are lawyers, I feel like he probably knows that he's got one foot in the door already and, you know, it's scary for me because to know that what I've gone through is one thing but I don't want anyone else to suffer the way that I did.”
更多头条新闻 电子邮件诈骗瞄准新斯科舍省工匠。以下是您需要了解的
MORE TOP STORIES Email scams are targeting Nova Scotia crafters. Here’s what to