WINNIPEG -- A Winnipeg man is fighting in court after Manitoba Public Insurance revoked his Star Trek-themed licence plate in 2015.
In 2015, Star Trek fan Nicholas Troller applied for the personalized licence plate "ASIMIL8" and was approved.
He installed the plate on his car, along with a licence plate holder that reads "We are the Borg" and "Resistance is futile," which is a reference to a fictitious alien race, the Borg, from Star Trek.
Two years later, MPI became aware of a social media post critiquing the plate as being offensive to Indigenous people.
An Ontario woman posted a photo of the licence plate on Facebook on April 22, 2017. Court filings show a transcript of a call she made to MPI in which she said the plate was offensive because of the history of government assimilation policies.
The same day the comments were posted online, MPI revoked the plate. Documents from the legal challenge show a senior executive was shocked it was ever approved.
An email from vice-president Keith Ward to registrar of motor vehicles Carla Hocken on April 24, 2017, said approving the licence plate did not follow MPI procedures and required immediate action.
"We are considering serious disciplinary action for those who were involved and contributed to approving a plate that is so obviously inappropriate at a time when there was significant media coverage about the work of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, etc," Ward wrote in the email.
Troller’s attorney James Kitchen argued that the decision to take away the licence plate is a violation of Troller’s charter-protected right to free expression.
He told the court assimilate is "just a word. A word used by scientists, even judges." He also argued "the word assimilate is not an expletive. It's not profane. It's not objectively offensive." Kitchen called the decision to revoke the plate "a knee-jerk reaction to a social media post." The court application also seeks reinstatement of Troller’s plate, and the quashing of the initial decision to revoke it.
But Crown lawyer Charles Murray argued "free expression doesn't mean it's a free for all. We have reasonable limits." He told the court there are no prior court cases where personalized plates are a vehicle for expression. Murray conceded there were inoffensive uses of the word assimilate, but said "offensiveness cannot be entirely divorced from subjectiveness," and said there is a legitimate and real concern people will believe "the government endorses this message as being OK."
Murray asked "what is the expression being balanced? I like Star Trek versus reconciliation." In any event, he argued, Troller can show his love of Star Trek using a different plate.
Justice Sheldon Lanchbery reserved his decision.
- With files from the Canadian Press
