"GRABHER" Licence Plate Owner is Appealing the Case

A man in Nova Scotia, Lorne Grabher, is appealing the province’s decision to have his personalized licence plate taken away.

For close to 30 years, Grabher had been driving with a licence plate that bears his last name, but it was revoked by the Nova Scotia’s Registrar of Motor Vehicles in December 2016.

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He claims the province infringed on his freedom of expression.

However, in a ruling issued in January 2020, the Nova Scotia Supreme Court said that constitutionally protected freedom does not extend to government-owned licence plates.

Apparently, the RMV only decided that the licence plate was illegal after an anonymous complaint.

“On what basis? What had changed?” asked Jay Cameron, a lawyer for Mr. Grabher, as reported by The Globe and Mail. “Mr. Grabher’s name was the same, the plate was the same, the law was the same, the Constitution is the same. There is no evidence that for nearly three decades the plate harmed anyone.”

Promoting Hatred

The aforementioned complaint to the RMV in 2016 said the plate promoted hatred toward women.

It was around the same time that a video surfaced online where future U.S. President Donald Trump could be heard saying: “Grab ’em by the pussy. You can do anything.”

On his Facebook page, Grabher shared a link to a sticker people can put on their bumper to show support.

It’s not the first time a personalized licence plate is causing controversy in Canada. Remember the driver in Melville, Saskatchewan who had a plate that read “ASSMAN” or the Star Trek fan in Manitoba who had his “ASIMIL8” plate revoked?