A Canadian man has been involved in a legal battle with the Nova Scotia Department of Transportation after having his vanity license plate revoked for featuring a “socially unacceptable slogan”. The problem is that that slogan is also the man’s family name.
In December of 2016, Lorne Grabher, of Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, was informed that his license plate – which read ‘GRABHER’ – would be canceled because people could “misinterpret it as a socially unacceptable slogan”. The Department of Transportation had apparently received complaints from “some individuals” who considered the plate “misogynistic and promoting violence against women”, and had decided to revoke it. At the time, the phrase “grab her” had taken a political significance, following the leak of a 2005 tape of US President Donald Trump making his now famous statement about grabbing women by the… Well, you know.
