Article content

It is, as the delightful John Carpay says, “a full frontal assault on the English language”, this insane revocation of a personalized licence plate by Manitoba Public Insurance (MPI).

The plate in question belonged to Nicholas Troller, a Winnipeg resident and Star Trek devotee who in 2015 applied for a plate that read “ASIMIL8”, in honour of the iconic movie and TV series, paid the $100 fee, and proudly framed it in a border that used two famous Star Trek phrases, “We are The Borg” and “Resistance is futile”.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Christie Blatchford: Resistance is not futile when it comes to freedom of expression Back to video

(For those of us, like me, who aren’t Trekkies, “assimilate” is one of the few words The Borg ever speak, as in, shortly before they take over an alien species to add to the collective mind, they say, “You will be assimilated” and “Resistance is futile”.)

In any case, it was crystal clear by how Troller displayed the plate that his context was Star Trek and his use of assimilate was only in that sense.