Trial set for 2018 over Nova Scotia’s controversial ‘GRABHER’ licence plate

HALIFAX – A Nova Scotia Supreme Court judge will allow constitutional arguments in a case where the province decided a man’s personalized licence plate was offensive to women.

Lorne Grabher 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.

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.