LUV UR PL8? 2BAD4U, cleric told

[Kip Powick]

Joanne Sorrill has a bad case of road rage. And it's all the transportation ministry's fault.

Sorrill, an ordained United Church minister, has personalized licence plates that read "REV JO." But after almost 20 years, the Ministry of Transportation is revoking them over fears they encourage dangerous driving.

"I am more than upset. I am enraged," says the Whitby resident, who received a letter from the ministry Monday ordering her to turn the plates in. "This is political correctness to the extreme."

Her displeasure was doubled when a ministry employee later told her on the phone that her revised idea for a plate, REVRNDJO, was also unsuitable, saying the ministry wanted to avoid any sign of bias toward Christianity over other religions.

Sorrill received the REV JO plates as a 50th birthday present soon after her ordination 19 years ago. When she bought a year-old Chevy Malibu two months ago, she decided to order new plates to replace the rusty old ones.

After weeks of waiting, she received the letter telling her to either get regular plates or re-order personalized ones with different lettering – at no charge.

According to the letter, the Personalized Licence Plate Review Committee decided the plates "could be perceived to denote speeding or racing," which contradicts the ministry's mission to promote road safety.

"Apparently," says Sorrill, "they think REV JO contributes to road rage."

In fact, she says, the plates "have always provoked light-hearted joking. I have had a lot of fun over the years with them."

What drives Sorrill even madder is the licensing office's further rejection of anything that hints of religion.

When she called yesterday to test-drive other ideas, she got a red light on "REVRNDJO" because it promotes her faith.

"I cannot have anything that denotes I am a Christian," she fumes.

Personalized plates can be rejected for references to drugs, alcohol, religion, sex and racism, ministry spokesperson Bob Nichols said.

"The ministry has taken this position because licence plates are constantly in the public eye and will be seen by members of the public to be `government-approved' choices."

The objection to "REV JO" on religious grounds, he adds, is that it "may leave the impression that the ministry and government as a whole favours organized religion with a Christian base."

Sorrill won't be stymied by the roadblock. "I think I'm going to keep my old battered plates and wear them as a proud symbol of the government's stupidity."

While Transportation Minister Jim Bradley conceded Wednesday that vetting the vanity plates is "a difficult job," he expressed his displeasure at the REV JO debacle.

"I'm not going to second-guess the people who have this job, only to say it's very imperfect science," Bradley told reporters at Queen's Park.

"They really try hard very hard to get the right balance and this case they may not have and we've asked them to look at it again."

[deicer]

After the Taliban, the next big conflict is.....

THE WAR ON CHRISTMAS

Iceman

[Guest rattler]

Part of the war on Christmas?????