A Canadian provincial government has withdrawn a man’s personalized vehicle license plate, stating the Lorne Grabher’s surname is ‘offensive to women’ when displayed on the bumper of his car.

On Friday, Grabher said that he put his surname on the license plate decades ago as a gift for his late father’s birthday. He accused the Nova Scotia government of discriminating against his family’s name, arguing that the province’s refusal to renew the plate late last year is ‘unfair’.

Brian Taylor, spokesperson of the Nova Scotia Transport Department responded that while the department understands Grabher is merely a surname with German roots, the context isn’t available to the general public would be seeing it, but that the department offers “its sincerest apologies to the man”.

The ‘Personalized Plate Program which was introduced in 1989 allows a province to refuse names which they deem socially unacceptable or ‘offensive’.