Calgary man wins appeal for ‘FREE AB’ vanity plate
A Calgary man will be allowed a personalized “FREE AB” licence plate after winning an appeal of an initial denial from the province.
Tomas Manasek, who ran as an Alberta Independence Party candidate in Calgary-fish Creek during the 2019 provincial election, had applied for the personalized plate last December to express his views about Alberta independence.
But his application was rejected by the Registrar of Motor Vehicle Services, which wrote in a December 12 letter that his requested vanity plate “does not fit within the guidelines” of the Alberta Personalized Licence Plate Program.
“The Traffic Safety Act provides authorization for the Registrar of Motor Vehicle Services to refuse to issue, or recall at any time, any licence plate configuration that is deemed inappropriate for a government-issued licence plate,” the letter stated.
Manasek appealed the decision. On March 12, the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms also filed a court challenge on
Manasek’s behalf.
The JCCF argued that the Registrar of Motor Vehicle Services had infringed on Manasek’s right to freedom of expression under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. It also stated that “FREE AB” didn’t violate any restrictions on the content of personalized plates listed by Service Alberta, such as the forbidden use of ethnic or religious slurs, foul language or political slurs.
“Permitting ‘FREE AB’ on a Personalized Plate advances the underlying values of self-fulfilment and democratic discourse,” the JCCF contended in its application for judicial review.
“Censoring ‘FREE AB’ in this space harms these values and protects none.”
A May 14 letter from the Registrar of Motor Vehicle Services informed Manasek his appeal had been granted and he was free to order his personalized plate for the required fee.
This marks the fourth case involving personalized licence plates that the JCCF has taken to court. In a case that drew considerable attention, a Manitoba man lost his legal fight against Manitoba Public Insurance over its decision to revoke a personalized “ASIMIL8” plate after receiving a complaint that it was offensive to Indigenous people.
A judge ruled last October it was reasonable for the insurer to revoke Nick Troller’s plate because the word is connected to the Indigenous experience and government policies of forced assimilation.
The vanity plate had been a reference to a slogan from Star Trek, according to Troller.
Also last year, the JCCF negotiated an out-of-court settlement with Manitoba Public Insurance to return a personalized “NDN CAR” plate to Bruce Spence, a Nehiyaw man from Opaskwayak Cree Nation.
Spence had gotten the licence plate about seven years earlier as an ode to “Indian Cars,” one of his favourite songs by Indigenous musician Keith Secola.
But the plate was revoked and the insurer told him in May 2018 it was considered offensive and ethnic slang. The insurer later determined the plate could be returned.
Lorne Grabher has taken his case to the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal over his “GRABHER” plate, which was revoked in 2016 after 27 years of use.
The province revoked the vanity plate bearing his surname after a woman complained it promoted hatred toward women.
Grabher has argued the province infringed on his freedom of expression, but the Nova Scotia Supreme Court said that constitutionally protected right does not extend to government-owned plates.
JCCF lawyer James Kitchen said in a statement that the reversal in the “FREE AB” case is an acknowledgment “that in a free Alberta, FREE AB is permitted to be freely expressed on a personalized licence plate.”
“The Charter protects citizen expression on personalized plates,” Kitchen said. “The government, after inviting individuals to express themselves on such plates, cannot arbitrarily reject phrases like FREE AB merely to avoid controversy or because it disapproves of the meaning or message of the phrase.”