Nouman, 29, came to Canada as a refugee with his mother and brother a decade ago. His father had died a few years earlier, and life for a single mother in Kabul was not safe at the time. Canada, they hoped, would give them security and “tranquility.” But a set of license plates he ended up with last year would put him in danger again. CBC News is identifying the 29-year-old by his first name only due to concerns for his safety. When Nouman bought his first bike from a dealership last summer, he didn’t pay much attention to the fact that the bike had 1S1S6 plates on them. But after receiving multiple death threats and accusations that he was a supporter of the terrorist group, Numan asked provincial service provider Service Ontario to change the dishes. Instead of issuing him new ones, he says they dropped him and left him vulnerable to being targeted again. “Not only was my life threatened at that point, but I’m being mocked for the same thing by a public servant,” he said. “It puts you in a really powerless place.”
“We know you’re a supporter”
It’s not the first time the province has come under scrutiny for failing to review potentially offensive signs. In 2018 and 2019, CBC Toronto reported on vanity signs that seemed to fly under the radar despite having graphic meanings in several languages, including Punjabi, Hindi and Urdu. But this particular sign should raise obvious flags, given that ISIS is a well-known designated terrorist group in Canada that has made headlines for the atrocities it has committed, says a sociology professor. Momin Rahman, a professor at Trent University who studies racism and Islamophobia, says the signs Nouman put up would have been “obviously stigmatizing” to him and that the province should have known better. When Nouman bought his first bike from a dealership last summer, he didn’t pay much attention to the fact that the bike bore the plates: 1S1S6. This was before the death threats. (Submitted by Nouman) Just two months after he bought the bike, Numan says someone accosted him outside the Metropolitan University of Toronto, asking what his license plate was supposed to mean and yelling profanities at him. Nouman dismissed it as a one-off. Winter was just around the corner and he would be leaving his bike soon anyway. But last spring, the threats started again. In May, he says, three men pushed him outside the school, threatened him and said, “We know you’re a supporter.” After that, Nouman says he filed a police report and went to a Service Ontario location in Etobicoke to ask for the plates to be replaced. He says the attendant dismissed his concerns and said he would be charged $59 for the change. Nouman refused, saying the dish should never have been released given how closely it resembled the word ISIS. Ultimately, the province bans license plates that are “decided objectionable” for a number of reasons, including: those with words of a sexual nature, vulgar, abusive, derogatory, refer to religion, promote violence, contain political views or express hatred against an individual or group. “Yes, I could pay that amount to avoid that, but at the same time Service Ontario has a responsibility to provide me with a set of plates that don’t kill me, right?” he said.
A near death experience
On June 10, Numan says he was met again by a different group of men outside the convenience store where he worked. This time, he says, he decided to go to a government official the very next day to make his case again. He almost didn’t make it. On his way to a Service Ontario office in Mississauga, Numan says a man in a gray or silver car almost ran him off the road on Dandas Street. Fortunately, Nouman swerved into an empty lane just in time and caught the car at a red light where he was able to write down the license plate to file another police report. While there’s no way to know for sure, he believes the incident was just one of many incited by his license plate. Peel Regional Police confirmed to CBC News that Nouman filed a report, but did not confirm the date or whether they are investigating. “He was just lucky on so many levels because the left lane was open, because I was able to see that person in time, react in time, or I probably wouldn’t be here to tell you this story,” he said. Finally, that day, he says a Service Ontario employee changed his plates at no cost, apologizing for what he went through.
Institutions must be more “responsive”: professor
Meanwhile, Rahman says that with Canada’s population growing increasingly diverse, public institutions need to be more culturally aware and more “responsive” to the populations they serve. Momin Rahman, a professor at Trent University who studies racism and Islamophobia, says the number plates Nouman saw would have been “obviously stigmatizing” to him and that the province should have known better. (Submitted by Momin Rahman) “We know in Canada that people who identify as Muslim can be the target of violence such as [what] happened in London. It happened in Quebec City,” he said. “And so it’s a bit of a shock to find that there was no immediate understanding of this and that the driver and the family could be targeted with this type of sign.” A spokesperson for Ontario’s Office of the Minister of Public and Business Services apologized for Numan’s experience, adding that his plates were eventually replaced at no charge. “We apologize to this individual for not meeting our level of service and are working to ensure this situation does not happen again,” the statement said. The ministry says it aims to be “as holistic and detailed as possible” when reviewing signs to ensure they are not objectionable. But because the process is manual, he says there are times when a certain combination of letters and numbers is missed. The ministry also says its civil servants complete mandatory training to support cultural sensitivity. Meanwhile, Nouman says he’s been told the original plates will be destroyed. He has since sold his bike as well. But he says he wants assurances that no one else will be given signs that could put them at risk. Overall, he says the whole experience left him feeling “disappointed”. “If they’re writing something dangerous like this and it’s on the street, that’s a clear threat.”
