It must be tough working as the ‘vanity plate’ proof reader at the Ministry of Transportation. Creative spelling of swear words like FCK DIS and 5H1TBOX make it past the spell-check, and really only get caught by the person proof reading requests.
Obviously, a vanity plate that’s obscene, promotes violence, or makes sexual references should be rejected. But there’s also instances where freedom of expression is restricted. There was a famous incident in Nova Scotia where the province refused to renew the vanity plate of Lorne Grabher after 27 years, because they determined that if the guy’s family name is read as two words, grab her, it could be interpreted as promoting sexualized violence against women. That’s really a stretch.
Last week a local story about Ontario vanity plate OCTOBER7 became big news. A guy named Maher Zitawi received the plate he ordered, but the Ministry of Transportation has since revoked it. Despite this, the Mississauga man has posted his picture on social media while holding his ‘banned plate’. Media outlets like Global News state the plate appears to commemorate the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7th, 2023.
When a the Ontario government official in charge was reached for comment by the local news outlet, this was his response;
“Obviously it does not reflect Canadian values, our values as a government. People deserve to feel safe and not have that taunted on the back of a licence plate… if anyone ever sees that licence plate on a car, call us right away.”
Prabmeet Sarkaria
Ontario Transportation Minister
The government has since launched an investigation into how the plate had made it through the vetting process, and has already promised to hire more staff to review vanity plates to prevent this from ever happening again. A complete overhaul of the vanity plate system is underway due to this incident.
How in the world is the MTS supposed to filter out political statements about events on the other side of the world? Hell, October 7th is also Vladimir Putin’s birthday, do nothing good ever happened on that day!
Here’s a suggestion; scrap all personalized plates. They’re stupid and vain and bring no benefit to car culture.
My dad and mom had their Ham radio call numbers on their plates for years. I thought about getting a plate with my stage name ELCHEO, but decided to stick with the plates originally issued for the car.
You see? That was back when good, old-fashioned, God-fearing people got vanity plates. Now people try to get profanities and political statements.
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Can you imagine working at the DMV and having to keep up with slang, and alternative spellings of swear words, all as part of your job?! That’s a lot to ask.
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But this OCTOBER7 plate changed my mind. At first I thought, fuck it, it’s not the DMV’s problem to know about every political event in other countries. But seeing that jerk’s smiling face (and looking at his social media) he IS an extremist who’s celebrating the attacks. Just scrap the system.
AI might help weed out the weirdos. But I agree. Everyone has ro make a political statement these days. Scrap identiry politics along with it.
If by weirdos you mean the government workers, then yes: AI will replace them.
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All joking aside, what the hell does a license plate on my car have to do with my politics. Nothing! It’s not the place or time.
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I love everything to do with car culture. So I laugh when I see see TOOFAST plates on a Chevette, or something automotive related. But these divisive politics seeping into our everyday lives just has to stop.
There are government weirdos and those weirdos who want political plates. Clever plates are fun, but not political plates. A lot of people need to get a life outside of identity politics and hating their neighbors and everyone else for that matter.
I have grown exceedingly tired of politics, domestic and abroad. It has no place on a government issued license plate.
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Ontario won’t scrap them because they make MONEY on the vanity plates. But they could offer unique colour schemes and I guarantee you people would pay extra for them.
New Mexico has different designs. We have the red and green chiles plates.
New Mexico? That’s exactly what I’m talking about!
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Give motorists some choices, and people will spend a couple extra bucks on a cool plate. There’s the extra tax revenue. No need for messages (especially negative ones).
And this is why we can’t have nice things.
I actually think vanity plates can be fun, but as you can imagine I wouldn’t try to get something sketchy past the quality control folks. The one vanity plate I have had was on our Previa, called the egg in Japan. My plates was “GOODEGG”
For such an ovoid vehicle as a Previa, GOODEGG is perfect. Plus, it’s a Toyota, so it must be good!
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I get it when youngsters try to pull a fast one on ‘The Man’ and get a plate with a dirty word. It’s infantile, but harmless. But if somebody wants to make political statements, write a letter to the editor of your newspaper, post on Twitter or start a blog. The license plate is not the place for it, and it hurts my wallet to think that my province has to hire MORE government workers to filter out this crap.
I’m with you for sure. Hate it when I see political crap on a license plate. I feel like cybertrucks are often sporting objectionable plates. But what can be expected from someone who thinks a dumpster on wheels is neato?
Oh my gosh…DUMPSTER ON WHEELS !!!
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You are hilarious, my friend.
Just call em like I see em. 😇
I saw one on the road in front of my office yesterday with the vanity plate DMPSTR so I guess even the owner knew it.
Talk about owning the libs; that’s owning yourself!