‘Grabher’: A war over a surname

Canadian man Lorne Grabher was proud of his personalised number plate bearing with his last name in bold capital letters: “GRABHER”. He bought the plate as a gift for his late father in 1991 and kept the family tradition alive by placing the plate on his own vehicle.

On December 9, 2016, Grabher received a letter from the Office of the Registrar of Motor Vehicles stating that, following a complaint from the public, his personalised number plate was cancelled.

Suddenly, in the context of 2016, Mr Grabher’s German last name sounded like an endorsement of sexual assault. In their letter cancelling the number plate, the office said “GRABHER” could be misinterpreted as a “socially unacceptable slogan”.

Frustrated, Mr Grabher applied to the Nova Scotia Supreme Court claiming the number plate’s cancellation unjustifiably infringed on his freedom of expression and equality rights under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The court is to decide whether it causes enough harm to justify infringing Mr Grabher’s right to freedom of expression.

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