Man's licence plate, based on his surname, ruled 'socially unacceptable'

A Canadian Supreme Court judge will allow constitutional arguments in a case where a local government decided a man's personalised licence plate was offensive to women.

Lorne Grabher, of Nova Scotia, had his licence plate with the text "GRABHER" — his last name — revoked last year after government officials agreed with a complainant that it was a "socially unacceptable slogan."

In a court hearing on Wednesday, lawyer Jay Cameron of the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms asked for the right to argue that the wording of regulations for personal licences are so vague that they violate the guarantee of freedom of expression in the Charter of Rights.

Cameron said in an interview that Justice James Chipman allowed Grabher amend his original motion.

Grabher's lawyers can now make constitutional arguments against the regulation, rather than simply seek to have the government's ruling overturned.

His previous application argued that the provincial decision itself was unconstitutional, while the new motion goes after the law itself and claims its wording is imprecise.

“The restriction of a fundamental freedom ... cannot be justified on the basis it ‘might be offensive.’ ‘Might be offensive’ provides certainty of law to neither the registrar nor the citizen,” says the legal document prepared by lawyers with the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms.

“The requirement that laws be precise is fundamental to the rule of law and constitutionalism.”

John Carpay, a spokesman for the group, said in an interview that it’s absurd and arbitrary that an ordinary citizen’s last name should be determined to be offensive.

The court also set fresh dates for a trial, with the matter now scheduled for one year from now, on Sept. 5 and 6, 2018.