Posted by They say the road to hell is paved with the best intentions but the road to the nanny state is paved by morons and bureaucrats who have no concept of what the law of unintended consequences is. In the early days before political correctness ran amok, attempts to control thoughts, speech and actions at least tried to addressed real issues and were more sensible when they eventually restricted personal liberties. Unfortunately, our society has fallen victim of the law of low hanging fruit; the fact that we tend to fix the easiest and most accessible things first. What remains after years and years of attempting to fix the same issues means you tend to focus on more and more marginal ones until one day you wake up and discover that stupidity rules the day.
Such is the case in Nova Scotia where a man has had his license plate with his surname Grabher revoked. The plate was a birthday gift bought by Lorne Grabher for his father’s 65th birthday. It has remained in the family for the past 25 years but now, because of Donald Trump’s infamous quote, the Nova Scotia Registry of Motor Vehicles has revoked it after “a complaint was received outlining how some individuals interpret [the name] as misogynistic and promoting violence against women… With no way to denote that it is a family name on the plate, the department determined it was in the public’s best interest to remove it from circulation.” Seriously? Given that the actual Trump quote is “grab them” not “grab her”, I can tell you it is in the public’s best interest to stop taking anonymous complaints from passive-aggressive politically correct idiots who take offense at basically everything.
My favourite pastime of golf has taken a beating in the last few years by stupid and controversial rulings – usually preceded by a phone in complaint about a rule violation by some anonymous and bored idiot full of themselves and their self-righteousness. I know people like that on the golf course as well; people who like to quote rules ad nauseum to you in the middle of a round to prove some unknown point of moral or intellectual superiority. Let’s get it straight – my driver is not “illegal” – the USGA does not have the power to pass laws. It may be “non-compliant” but that’s none of your business either… neither is how I drop my golf ball after it goes in the pond. But unlike our politicians and courts, at least the USGA is much more receptive to changing their stupid ways in the wake of massive complaints from the players and viewing population that these idiots and the USGA rulings pandering to them were ruining the game. It took only a month after the most recent fiasco for Lexi Thompson at the ANA Inspiration before the USGA came up with new rules to address the increasing public outrage about major tournaments being decided by call in complaints and high-definition slow-motion video replays.
The very stupid and almost humorous story for poor Mr. Grabher in Nova Scotia could be forgiven as an aberrant one-off event but it appears that our society’s trend toward liberal think nanny-statism has reached endemic proportions. We now have a case in Manitoba where the authorities have revoked the license plate ASIMIL8. This event is doubly troubling because today marks the start of the Calgary Exposition – our version of Comic-Con where over 100,000 nerds and geeks, many in cosplay costumes – descend on the Stampede grounds for what is the second largest annual event in Calgary behind the Stampede itself. Unlike the Grabher case, the license plate is clearly positioned in a Star Trek frame referencing the evil cybernetic Borg bent on destroying humanity by forcing them into the collective. “We are the Borg – Resistance is futile – You will be assimilated” is basically all the negotiation that the Borg do and is a purple passage to all Star Trek fans.
But in this case, a perfectly non-offensive word is considered to be offensive by a small group of idiots who think it refers to the idea of “assimilating” the native american’s to the invading white European culture. Even if it were the case, who cares? Why should your perceived offense (especially when none was intended in the first place) be more important than my right to freedom of speech and expression? What if I say I am offended by those who take offense at everything; can the government please get rid of them for me please?
I find it amazing how liberals circle the square of their logical (or should I say illogical) thought process. How one achieves inclusiveness and diversity through repression and suppression of free expression is incomprehensible. It is, as John Carpay from the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms says, “Canadians are becoming increasingly less tolerant of free expression… You have more and more people who believe that they have a legal right to go through life without seeing or without hearing things they find to be offensive.” Yup, anonymous phone calls to complain (to the government) combined with a good dose of political correctness and you end up with a society of entitlement, filled with self-righteous snowflakes who are offended by everything and seek to pass their holy moral judgment on everyone else like they were red-robed Cardinals in the Spanish Inquisition. And they are “empowered” by a “nanny-state” that has lost its own way and moral authority given their inability to stand up for individual rights while pandering to every special interest group that comes along. As our society continues to unravel and fray, I’m increasingly of the thinking that maybe Thomas Jefferson had a point.
UPDATE 1 (14 November 2017): Lorne Grabher’s challenge to his revoked licence plate with his surname continues to slowly grind its way through the sclerotic Canadian legal system. Rather than attempt to merely get the ruling overturned, Mr. Grabher’s legal team is now pushing for a constitutional challenge to the entire law. The trial is now set for next September and Mr. Grabher’s case is being supported by the Alberta-based Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms. According to his most recent affidavit in support of his case:
He says he has not intended to offend anyone, and is “profoundly insulted and humiliated” that his name had been deemed offensive.
“I am increasingly dismayed by the hypersensitivity of some people who are ‘offended’ by every little thing they encounter. I am further dismayed that these ‘easily offended ones’ are not content only to be personally offended. Rather, they seem uniformly inclined to try to use the power of a supposedly ‘neutral’ state to do something about their whining,” he says in the affidavit.
“Canada is not a country where a person gets to be ‘offended’ at everything. Canadians who complain to the government about every little thing should be politely but firmly informed that we live in a cultural mosaic that respects individual freedoms. Such diversity and freedom are impossible if the government seeks to eliminate or limit every little thing and every little difference that could be perceived as ‘offensive’ to someone.
Godspeed to you Mr. Grabher, I hope you win.
UPDATE 2 (4 September 2018): Our holier-than-thou lawyers have a pithy saying that “justice delayed is justice denied”. Well, it looks like that Grabher will have to wait until 23 April 2019 to see if he can get his license plate back that was taken away in 2016. If you ask me, three years is a pretty long time to wait for something as simple as getting your family name put on a license plate. Canada’s nanny state mentality is alive and well – even as the rest of the country decays.
‘Grabher’ licence plate court battle postponed until next year