Assimilate THIS, MPI!
2 min read
A Star Trek fan whose ASIMIL8 Manitoba license plate was denied by the Manitoba Public Insurance (MPI) is fighting back.
Nicholas Troller has had the plate since 2015, until it was deemed that the word was offensive to indigenous people. Troller was supposed to turn in the license plate earlier this year.
But Troller turned to the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (JCCF) who will fight for the Trek fan, saying that revoking the plate was a “violation of Mr. Troller’s Charter-protected right to freedom of expression.”
“The problem is the idea that some people have that we are somehow entitled to go through life without seeing or hearing things that we find offensive,” said John Carpay, president of JCCF. “That is a big threat to freedom of expression. If I have a right to not be offended, then you don’t have a right to free speech. If you have a right to not be offended, then I don’t have a right to free speech.”
Carpay said that the JCCF would be “filing a request for a judicial review by the end of July,” and “in a judicial review, the court would be asked to set aside MPI‘s decision to deny the license plate to Troller.”
MPI responded by saying that “The word ‘assimilate’ has become closely associated with the harm occasioned by the Indian residential schools system” and that is why they wanted to recall the plate.
In the meanwhile, Troller has a new Trek-themed plate, COLECTV. One can only hope that this time, the plate doesn’t offend someone somewhere somehow.
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