Canadian gov’t says man’s name too offensive for personalized license plate: The name?

Canadian gov’t says man’s name too offensive for personalized license plate: The name?
Image: Shutterstock

Last year, LU carried the story of a Florida man who objected to his randomly generated alphanumeric plate license number because it began with the letters G-A-Y. The angry driver was gay, as it turns out, though it’s easy to imagine straight people having the same reaction.

The story reveals that state departments of motor vehicles and the motorists they serve can disagree over the text on a license plate even when the plate isn’t the so-called “vanity” type, though vanity plates are usually more of a hot potato issue. That’s  what a driver in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia discovered when he applied for a vanity plate imprinted with nothing more off-color than his last name. At least that’s what the man thought. He soon found he was mistaken.

From the Associated Press (via CBS Pittsburgh):

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A Canadian provincial government has withdrawn a man’s eponymous personalized vehicle license plate, saying Lorne Grabher’s surname is offensive to women when viewed on his car bumper.

What’s in a name? (Image via Twitter)

Grabher said Friday that he put his last name on the license plate decades ago as a gift for his late father’s birthday, and says the province’s refusal to renew the plate late last year is unfair.

Grabher says the Nova Scotia government is discriminating against his name.

Transport Department spokesman Brian Taylor says while the department understands Grabher is a surname with German roots, this context isn’t available to the general public who view it.

If the news item shows anything, it’s that Canada and its inhabitants need to get a life. If women there are really offended by something so innocuous, they are not worth the government’s time.

Ben Bowles

Ben Bowles

Ben Bowles is a freelance writer and regular contributor to "Liberty Unyielding."

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