Manitoba veteran's request for personalized D-DAY licence plate rejected

Timothy Yakubovich wants a personalized D-Day license plate for his motorcycle. He says it is the best way to honor his late father, a Second World War veteran who was on Juno Beach when it was invaded on June 6, 1944, also known as D-Day. To his dismay, Manitoba Public Insurance denied this plate D-Day and then D-Day with a hyphen. Day was actually denied because they stated it was indicating relation of violence and or organized crime. I was totally godsmacked like this. Unbelievable. And I said, Oh yeah, I’m going to take this one step further. And if I got to take it a third step, I will. Yakubovich had applied for the license plate first in August 2023. In January, he got his first letter of rejection from MPI. Yakubovich sought the help of an MLA and wrote a second letter to MPI, which was denied. Again, we made a mistake on our first decision. We looked at your license plate and it was again denied because it suggests a political and Oregon social movement which I was once again godsmacked like how do you explain this? And literally they cannot, he says. His next step is to appeal for a third time. I want to see a positive result and and let let them know there is just injustice. It’s about maintaining our history, our culture. This is what makes Canada, Canada and a melting pot of the people and to serve, protect and be proud of who we are. 56 year old Yakubovich is a retired veteran as well who served with Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry for 22 years. He feels the license plate has a bigger purpose. It’s not to honor my dad, but it’s to show the respect of the veterans that served past, present and future. And me as a soldier. I’ve lost a lot of friends over time. Jakubovich’s father served with the Queen’s Own Cameron Highlanders of Canada. He tells us about his father’s history. At D-Day. He was a third wave on onto the beach. Just after the Battle of Plays Gap. He got severely wounded and almost lost his leg, and he spent 2 1/2 years in Deer Lodge Hospital in Winnipeg for lake reconstruction and rehabilitation. When CPC reached out to MPI, they refused to comment about Jakubovich’s case. The reasons MPI provided for slogans being denied are things like profanity, abuse, discriminatory, violent or related to criminal activity, alcohol, drugs, religious, political and social movements. Zubeena Ahmed, CBC News, Winnipeg.