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Canadian man furious as surname deemed too rude for car's plate

Lorne Grabher with his licence plate - CBCNews
Lorne Grabher with his licence plate - CBCNews

A Canadian provincial government has withdrawn a man's eponymous personalised licence plate, saying Lorne Grabher's surname is offensive to women when viewed on his car bumper.

Mr Grabher said he put his last name on the licence plate decades ago as a gift for his late father's birthday, and claimed that Nova Scotia's refusal to renew the plate late last year is unfair.

"I was taken aback. How can you say my name is a slogan when it is not?" Mr Grabher told CBC News

Mr Grabher said the Nova Scotia government is discriminating against his name.

Transport department spokesman Brian Taylor said that while the department understands Mr Grabher is a surname with German roots, this context is not available to the general public who view it and it could be misinterpreted as a "misogynistic" and symbol of "violence against women".

"I've never once had anybody come up to me and say they were offended," Mr Grabher told CBC News. "They would look at it and say, 'Am I reading this right?' And I would go, 'Yes.' And they would go, 'Is this your last name?' And I would go, 'Yes.' And they would always just give a little chuckle."'

Mr Grabher told the Canadian broadcaster that he is familiar with the infamous video in which Donald Trump discusses "grabbing (women) by the p----", but that is not the intention of his plate. 

"Donald Trump is a totally different person. He's ignorant. He doesn't care about anybody and I shouldn't be put in a class like him," Mr Grabher told CBC.

The video sparked outrage when it emerged during the dying days of the 2016 election campaign. Mr Trump initially dismissed the remarks as "locker room banter" before apologising for the comments made in 2005.

Nova Scotia's licence plate regulations allow the province to refuse names deemed unacceptable for religious reasons, for being sexual, or for being in poor taste. 

Mr Taylor said the list of banned words, which currently stands at about 3,100, "is always evolving, as slang and language also continue to change and evolve."

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