Nova Scotia judge denies return of licence plate with family name of Germanic origin
A court ruling today means Lorne Grabher has lost the battle to keep his car licence plate bearing the family name.
Ever since the allowing of “vanity” licence plates, there have been controversies about what some people want on their vehicle licence plates.
Issued and regulated by each province, for an added fee people can request certain phrases to replace the standard letter/number licence plate. But there are restrictions against anything that is offensive, racist, or to some extent what the regulators deem to be in poor taste.
- RCI: Oct 25/19: Personalised licence plate battles: A win, a loss, and one waiting
- RCI: Feb 14/19: Assman fights back!
- RCI Oct 4/19: Yet another vanity plate concern (MAGUSA)
- RCI: May 15/17: The licence plate controversy continues: heads to court
For Lorne Grabher, a vanity plate with the family name on it seemed like a nice gift for his late father back in 1991. For 27 years there was no problem until a single anonymous complaint in 2017 that the plate was offensive to women.
In 2018, the provincial government said the plate could be “misinterpreted” as a “socially unacceptable slogan” and cancelled it.
Revenge! Saskatchewan issued Dave Assman a plate but when someone complained it was offensive the province demanded he turn it in. So he came up with a big solution, a tailgate-sized replica of the plate he wasn’t allowed. (Supplied Dave Assman-via CBC)
Lorne fought back saying the decision was “discriminatory”, “arbitrary”, and “unreasonable”, and a violation of free expression as guaranteed by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
When the Nova Scotia government refused to return the plate, Lorne, backed by the advocacy organisation, Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (JCCF), went to court.
They argued that vanity plate rejections included harmless words like “FENCE”, “AND”, “SAMPLE”, “NONE”, “SAFE”, and “GOLD” and as such, the decisions were arbitrary.
Lorne’s son Troy lives in Alberta where he bought a vanity plate with the family name in 2013. Worried he too might be targeted, he has since added the sentence beside the plate “Don’t be offended, it’s my family name” © Troy Grabher-via CBC
They also pointed out the government itself allows names and slogans that may be deemed offensive, such as those used in promotions by Halifax Water on public transit adverts such as “Powerful Sh*t”, and “Our minds are in the gutter,” while a reference to a prominent waterfront tower announced “Be proud of your Dingle”.
Bruce Spence, a Cree First Nations man, shows off his personalized plate, which he says was inspired by a song by Keith Secola. He has been allowed to keep the plate after an out of court settlement with the Manitoba licensing agency (Colleen Simard)
The Nova Scotia Supreme Court justice however disagreed with that saying, “the provincial government cannot sanction having vehicles with government-owned plates traveling the highways of this province and country bearing messages that could be considered ‘offensive or not in good taste.’”
Justice Darlene Jamieson also legitimized governments’ use of words like “Dildo”, “Crotch”, “Swastika”, and phrases such as “Negro Lake” and “Blow Me Down”, on public property.
In the written decision against the family name, the judge wrote, “The Registrar’s decision regarding the “GRABRER” plate (despite Mr. Grabher’s good intentions) was to prevent harm which could flow from a statement that could be interpreted as promoting sexualized violence against women and girls”.
She later concluded, “ I find there is no constitutionally-protected right to (s. 2(b)) freedom of expression in a government-owned, personalized license plate. I further find that Mr. Grabher has not established that the Registrar’s decision limited his (s. 15) equality rights
Mr. Grabher and the JCCF are reviewing the decision.
additional information-sources
- Canadian Press (via Globe and Mail): Nov 13/17: Nova Scotia man cites ‘vulgar’ government ads in bid to get Grabher license plate back
- CTV: Jul 19/17: ‘Powerful sh*t’: Halifax Water’s new campaign signs raising some eyebrows (+video report)
- CBC: Snowdon/Keeler: Aug 27/18: Too rude for the road: Here are the licence plates Alberta won’t allow
- CNN (U.S.): A. Ebrahimji: Aug 29/19: A mom with a license plate wins a battle with the state to keep it
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