vehicles 0.4.1 → 0.8.0

data/data/plates/ca-on.yml

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+# plates/ca-on.yml — Ontario, Canada (PRD-PLATES gate L2/L3, Canada east wave).
+#
+# FEDERATED JURISDICTION, per-province file, exactly as the US states are cut
+# (us-fl.yml is the exemplar). Canada has NO federal plate mandate: every
+# province and territory registers vehicles under its own statute and issues its
+# own plates. There is no Canadian analogue of the EU band, no national colour
+# rule and no national format.
+#
+# FIVE STRUCTURAL FACTS THAT SHAPE THIS FILE
+#
+# 1. AN ONTARIO PLATE BINDS TO THE OWNER, NOT THE VEHICLE — and the statute says
+#    so twice. HTA s. 11(1), verbatim: "Upon the holder of a permit ceasing to be
+#    the owner or lessee of the motor vehicle or trailer referred to in the
+#    permit, he, she or it shall, (a) remove his, her or its number plates from
+#    the vehicle; (b) retain the plate portion of the permit". And s. 11(3):
+#    "a person to whom number plates have been issued under subsection 7 (7) for
+#    a vehicle the person no longer owns or leases may affix the number plates to
+#    a similar class of vehicle that the person owns or leases where it is done
+#    in accordance with the prescribed requirements." That is the Swiss pattern
+#    (plates/ch.yml, `binding: owner`) arriving in Canada by a different route,
+#    and it is decisive for any consumer that treats a plate as a vehicle key:
+#    an Ontario plate number identifies a REGISTRATION HELD BY A PERSON, and it
+#    moves between that person's vehicles of the same class.
+#
+# 2. THE COMPOSITION OF AN ONTARIO PLATE NUMBER IS IN NO STATUTE AND NO
+#    REGULATION. HTA s. 7(1)(b)(i) requires "number plates issued in accordance
+#    with the regulations showing the number of the permit issued for the
+#    vehicle"; the regulation-making power in s. 7(24) reaches issuance,
+#    validation, display, fees, surrender, classification and "(o) prescribing
+#    the criteria for the issuance, retention and return of a number plate
+#    bearing a requested number" — and NEVER the letters and digits a plate is
+#    made of. R.R.O. 1990, Reg. 628 (Vehicle Permits) was read end to end on
+#    2026-08-02: it contains NO colour, NO dimension, NO character metric and NO
+#    serial grammar. The serial system is therefore an ADMINISTRATIVE allocation
+#    by the Ministry, exactly as the DVLA memory tags are in plates/gb.yml and
+#    the district codes are in plates/de.yml. Every `format` below that is not
+#    quoted from an Ontario government page is graded as a secondary claim and
+#    says so.
+#
+# 3. THE ONE FORMAT FACT ONTARIO PUBLISHES ITSELF IS THE PERSONALIZED CHARACTER
+#    COUNT. ServiceOntario, verbatim: "Personalized passenger and commercial
+#    plates may have 2 to 8 characters. Personalized motorcycle plates may have
+#    2 to 5 characters." Everything else about Ontario serial shape in this file
+#    (ABCD 123, AB 12345, the motorcycle and trailer arrangements, the excluded
+#    letters G/I/O/Q/U) rests on the en.wikipedia Ontario article's tables, is
+#    tagged `secondary-wikipedia` per PRD-PLATES §4, and is flagged in terms.
+#
+# 4. FRONT AND REAR ARE PRESCRIBED, AND THE VALIDATION STICKER MOVES BETWEEN
+#    THEM BY VEHICLE CLASS. O. Reg. 628 s. 9(3), verbatim: "The number plates for
+#    a motor vehicle, other than a motorcycle or a motor assisted bicycle, shall
+#    be attached to and exposed in a conspicuous position on the front and rear
+#    of the motor vehicle." s. 9(4): "The number plate for a motorcycle, motor
+#    assisted bicycle or trailer shall be attached to and exposed in a
+#    conspicuous position on the rear of the vehicle." s. 9(1): validation goes
+#    "in the upper right corner of the number plate exposed on the FRONT of the
+#    motor vehicle" for a commercial motor vehicle and "on the REAR" in all other
+#    cases. Ontario is a two-plate province and the sticker corner is a real
+#    class signal.
+#
+# 5. THE 2020 BLUE PLATE IS A GENUINE FOUR-MONTH SERIES AND IS MODELLED AS ONE.
+#    It was announced by the Government of Ontario in April 2019, entered issue
+#    in February 2020, was recalled and then abandoned in May 2020, and the white
+#    "Yours to Discover" base resumed. Overlapping series are legal under
+#    PRD-PLATES §2.2 when the notes are distinct; here they are distinct because
+#    the two really were issued in parallel while blue stock was exhausted.
+#
+# SEPARATOR NOTE (PRD-PLATES §2.6): an Ontario plate prints NO separator glyph
+# between the letter group and the digit group. What sits in the gap is a
+# SCREENED CROWN GRAPHIC (an emblem, carried in `design.emblem`, never in the
+# serial — the `never_separator` reasoning in _meta/separators.yml §4 exactly).
+# Every `pattern` here spells that gap as the emitted SPACE and every regex
+# accepts it as optional, which is also how ServiceOntario writes plate numbers.
+jurisdiction: ca-on
+authority:
+  name: Ministry of Transportation of Ontario (MTO); plates and permits issued through ServiceOntario
+  url: "https://www.ontario.ca/page/personalized-licence-plate"
+binding: owner
+binding_note: >-
+  HTA s. 11(1)(a) and s. 11(3) (quoted in the header) make the Ontario plate a
+  possession of the REGISTRANT. On sale the seller strips the plates and keeps
+  the plate portion of the permit; the plates may then go on another vehicle of
+  a similar class that the same person owns or leases. A consumer keying on
+  "which vehicle wears this plate" must therefore treat the answer as
+  time-varying. HTA s. 12(2) adds the ownership twist: "Every number plate is
+  the property of the Crown and shall be returned to the Ministry when required
+  by the Registrar."
+instrument:
+  statute: "Highway Traffic Act, R.S.O. 1990, c. H.8, ss. 7, 11, 12, 13 (Part II — Permits)"
+  regulation: "R.R.O. 1990, Reg. 628 (VEHICLE PERMITS), made under the Highway Traffic Act"
+  regulation_currency: "e-Laws consolidated text as served on 2026-08-02; Reg. 628 s. 1 carries amendments to O. Reg. 170/23"
+  reg_making_power: >-
+    HTA s. 7(24), verbatim opening: "The Lieutenant Governor in Council may make
+    regulations respecting any matter ancillary to the provisions of this Part
+    with respect to permits and number plates and in particular, ... (b)
+    respecting the issuance and validation of permits and the issuance of number
+    plates; ... (e) governing the manner of displaying number plates on motor
+    vehicles and trailers or any class or type of either of them; ... (k)
+    requiring the surrender of number plates; (l) classifying permits, providing
+    for the issuing or validating of any class of permit and the requirements
+    therefor and for the issuing of number plates and evidence of validation and
+    the requirements therefor; ... (o) prescribing the criteria for the issuance,
+    retention and return of a number plate bearing a requested number."
+    NOTE WHAT IS ABSENT: no power over the COMPOSITION of a mark, no power over
+    colour, no power over dimensions.
+  sources:
+    - "https://www.ontario.ca/laws/statute/90h08  # HTA ss. 7(1),(7),(7.1),(7.2),(24); 11(1),(3); 12(1),(2),(2.4); 13(1),(2) — read via the e-Laws document service on 2026-08-02"
+    - "https://www.ontario.ca/laws/regulation/900628  # R.R.O. 1990, Reg. 628 (Vehicle Permits) ss. 6, 9, 10, 13-13.4 — read via the e-Laws document service on 2026-08-02"
+  licence: >-
+    e-Laws content is published by the King's Printer for Ontario under the
+    Government of Ontario's Open Government Licence. Independently, statutes and
+    regulations are EDICTS OF GOVERNMENT and their text is uncopyrightable
+    (PRD-PLATES §4) — every verbatim quotation in this file is from that class of
+    material or from a ServiceOntario public information page.
+
+# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+# artwork_risk — carried here even though PRD-PLATES §7.1 makes it mandatory
+# only for US states, because the Canadian posture differs from every US state
+# and a renderer must not guess.
+# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+artwork_risk:
+  posture: crown-copyright-asserted
+  basis: >-
+    Ontario asserts Crown copyright. Every ontario.ca page fetched for this file
+    closes with the notice "King's Printer for Ontario, 2012 - to 26". Canada has
+    no US-style federal-works exclusion and no Canadian equivalent of
+    {{PD-FLGov}}; Crown copyright in Canada subsists under s. 12 of the federal
+    Copyright Act and provincial Crown copyright is claimed in practice. The
+    edicts-of-government principle still frees the TEXT of the Highway Traffic
+    Act and Reg. 628, which is why this file quotes them freely; it does not free
+    plate ARTWORK, the trillium graphic or the Ontario crown device.
+  emblem_rule: >-
+    PRD-PLATES §3 placeholder default applies without exception. The crown
+    separator, the stylized white trillium of the 2020 base and the provincial
+    wordmark are all rendered `placeholder` until affirmatively cleared per
+    emblem. The Ontario crown is additionally a royal device with protection
+    independent of copyright; that question is unresearched and flagged.
+  photograph_caution: >-
+    Commons photographs of Ontario plates carry the PHOTOGRAPHER's licence, not a
+    licence over the design (PRD-PLATES §6). Our renders are generated from this
+    data, never derived from a photograph, so those obligations never attach.
+
+# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+# Jurisdiction-wide facts, cited once, referenced per series.
+# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+common:
+  display:
+    two_plates: >-
+      O. Reg. 628 s. 9(3), verbatim: "The number plates for a motor vehicle,
+      other than a motorcycle or a motor assisted bicycle, shall be attached to
+      and exposed in a conspicuous position on the front and rear of the motor
+      vehicle."
+    one_plate: >-
+      O. Reg. 628 s. 9(4), verbatim: "The number plate for a motorcycle, motor
+      assisted bicycle or trailer shall be attached to and exposed in a
+      conspicuous position on the rear of the vehicle."
+    year_of_manufacture_single: >-
+      O. Reg. 628 s. 9(3.1): "Where the number plates attached to the vehicle are
+      year-of-manufacture plates, and only one plate was issued by the Ministry in
+      that year for display on a motor vehicle, that plate shall be attached to
+      and exposed in a conspicuous position at the rear of the vehicle."
+    validation_sticker: >-
+      O. Reg. 628 s. 9(1), verbatim: evidence of validation "shall be affixed,
+      (a) where the permit is for a commercial motor vehicle, in the upper right
+      corner of the number plate exposed on the front of the motor vehicle; and
+      (b) in all other cases, in the upper right corner of the number plate
+      exposed on the rear of the motor vehicle." s. 9(2): a RUO sticker goes "in
+      the upper left corner of the number plate exposed on the front of the bus."
+    dealer_exclusion: "O. Reg. 628 s. 9(5): section 9 does not apply to Dealer, Service, Dealer and Service, or Manufacturer permits and number plates."
+    legibility: >-
+      HTA s. 13(2), verbatim: "Every number plate shall be kept free from dirt and
+      obstruction and shall be affixed so that the entire number plate, including
+      the numbers, is plainly visible at all times, and the view of the number
+      plate shall not be obscured or obstructed by spare tires, bumper bars, any
+      part of the vehicle, any attachments to the vehicle or the load carried."
+      s. 13(3.0.1) and s. 13(3.1) extend the rule to anything defeating a red
+      light camera system or an electronic toll system.
+    no_other_numbers: >-
+      HTA s. 13(1), verbatim: "No number other than that upon the number plate
+      furnished by the Ministry shall be exposed on any part of a motor vehicle or
+      trailer in such a position or manner as to confuse the identity of the
+      number plate."
+    firefighter_sticker: >-
+      HTA s. 12.1 (s. 7(12.1)): a firefighter may be issued "a sticker, that
+      indicates that the vehicle is registered to or leased by a firefighter, to be
+      attached to the lower left hand corner of the FRONT number plate". A sticker
+      on an ordinary plate, not a series — recorded here rather than invented as one.
+    source: "https://www.ontario.ca/laws/regulation/900628  # Reg. 628 ss. 9(1)-(5), 6(1)-(4)"
+    source_statute: "https://www.ontario.ca/laws/statute/90h08  # HTA ss. 7(12.1), 13(1),(2),(3.0.1),(3.1)"
+  validation:
+    rule: >-
+      O. Reg. 628 s. 6(1): "For the purposes of clause 7 (1) (c) of the Act,
+      evidence of the current validation of a permit is required to be affixed to
+      the number plate of a motor vehicle." s. 6(2) exempts the classes listed in
+      Schedule 4.
+    sticker_abolition_2022: >-
+      Ontario eliminated licence-plate renewal STICKERS for passenger vehicles,
+      light commercial vehicles, motorcycles and mopeds in 2022; renewal itself
+      remains mandatory and is now automatic for eligible plates. ServiceOntario,
+      verbatim from the registration page: "Your passenger vehicle, light
+      commercial vehicle, motorcycle or moped license plate will renew
+      automatically". Commercial vehicles over 3,000 kg still validate annually.
+      RECORDED AS A FACT ABOUT THE STICKER, NOT ABOUT THE PLATE: no series in this
+      file changes at 2022, because the plate did not.
+    source: "https://www.ontario.ca/page/register-vehicle-permit-and-licence-plate  # accessed 2026-08-02"
+  charset:
+    excluded_letters_current: [G, I, O, Q, U]
+    excluded_note: >-
+      SECONDARY, TAGGED. The en.wikipedia Ontario article states that G, I, O, Q
+      and U are not used in the current four-letter passenger serial format,
+      citing the collector site allaboutlicenseplates.com. No Ontario government
+      page states any letter exclusion, and Reg. 628 states none. The exclusion is
+      encoded ONLY in `regex_strict`; `regex` never carries it, so a consumer who
+      distrusts the secondary loses nothing.
+    statutory_alphabet_absent: >-
+      NEGATIVE FINDING, recorded so nobody repeats the hunt: neither the Highway
+      Traffic Act nor R.R.O. 1990 Reg. 628 states an alphabet, a length, or a
+      character set for an Ontario number plate. The only length statement located
+      from a government source anywhere in this pass is the personalized-plate
+      count on the ServiceOntario page (2-8 / 2-5), which is why
+      `ca-on-personalized` is the only series in this file whose `regex` is
+      authority-sourced end to end.
+    source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicle_registration_plates_of_Ontario  # FINDING AID + tagged secondary (PRD-PLATES §4, owner override 2026-08-02): passenger/commercial/motorcycle/trailer serial formats and the excluded-letter sets; article read 2026-08-02"
+  dimensions:
+    note: >-
+      NO ONTARIO PRIMARY PRESCRIBES A PLATE SIZE. The 6 in x 12 in
+      (152.4 x 304.8 mm) North American plate is the continental convention and is
+      recorded on the series below as `plate_basis: convention`, never as an
+      Ontario legal claim. Contrast Nova Scotia (plates/ca-ns.yml), where the size
+      IS in the regulations in centimetres — that is what a sourced dimension looks
+      like, and Ontario has no equivalent.
+    folklore_caution: >-
+      The "1956 AMA / AAMVA standardization agreement" that supposedly fixed
+      6 x 12 in is UNCITED in its Wikipedia source and is copied verbatim across
+      the Canada, US and Puerto Rico articles (circular). PRD-PLATES §4 records it
+      as commonly repeated, unsourced. It is NOT relied on here.
+
+# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+# Classes Ontario HAS but this file deliberately does not model, each with the
+# primary that proves the class exists and the reason no `format` is authored.
+# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+classes_not_modelled:
+  dealer:
+    exists: true
+    mechanism: >-
+      O. Reg. 628 s. 13(1): "Upon filing satisfactory evidence as to the need for
+      it, a Dealer permit and number plate may be issued to a dealer in motor
+      vehicles, other than motorcycles and motor assisted bicycles". s. 13(2)-(7)
+      confine its use to inventory offered for sale, private use in Ontario and
+      purposes related to the sale, and forbid its use on a loaded commercial
+      vehicle (with a 2020 pick-up-truck carve-out at s. 13(6), O. Reg. 734/20).
+      Parallel regimes: s. 13.1 Service permit and number plate; s. 13.2 Dealer
+      and Service; Manufacturer permits and plates are named in s. 8.2(e) and
+      s. 9(5).
+    why_not_modelled: >-
+      NEITHER THE FORMAT NOR THE COLOUR OF AN ONTARIO DEALER, SERVICE OR
+      MANUFACTURER PLATE IS PUBLISHED IN ANY PRIMARY LOCATED IN THIS PASS.
+      Reg. 628 prescribes eligibility and permitted use and never appearance, and
+      the ServiceOntario page for these plates describes who may hold them and
+      what they cost, not what they look like. Recorded as a gap.
+    sources:
+      - "https://www.ontario.ca/laws/regulation/900628  # Reg. 628 ss. 13, 13.1, 13.2, 9(5)"
+      - "https://www.ontario.ca/page/get-manufacturer-licence-plate-dealer-plate-or-service-plate  # ServiceOntario, accessed 2026-08-02: eligibility and fees only, no format and no colour"
+  year_of_manufacture:
+    exists: true
+    mechanism: >-
+      HTA s. 7(7.2), verbatim: subsection (7.1) applies to number plates that
+      "(a) are Ontario number plates that were issued during the year of
+      manufacture of the motor vehicle; (b) are in a condition satisfactory to the
+      Ministry; and (c) show no numbers that duplicate the number of any other
+      existing permit." s. 7(7.1): where such plates are used, "the number of the
+      permit shall be the same as the number shown on those number plates."
+      ServiceOntario adds the eligibility rule verbatim: the vehicle must weigh
+      "under 3,000 kg", be "a passenger or light commercial vehicle from 1973 and
+      earlier, or ... a motorcycle from 1975 and earlier", and be unmodified; the
+      plate must be "manufactured in Ontario", "from the same year as the vehicle",
+      and is compared against an original "to make sure that the requested plate
+      has the same material used, colour scheme, layout and numbering sequence."
+    why_not_modelled: >-
+      A YEAR-OF-MANUFACTURE PLATE HAS NO FORMAT OF ITS OWN — it is a genuine
+      historic Ontario plate of whatever year, re-authorised. Modelling it would
+      mean authoring every Ontario series back to 1911, which is L4 scope
+      (PRD-PLATES §7). The class is recorded because the STATUTE creates it and
+      because a parse API must know that a pre-1973 Ontario shape on a modern road
+      is lawful and dates the VEHICLE, not the registration.
+    sources:
+      - "https://www.ontario.ca/laws/statute/90h08  # HTA s. 7(7.1), (7.2)"
+      - "https://www.ontario.ca/page/get-year-manufacture-licence-plate  # ServiceOntario, updated 14 January 2026, accessed 2026-08-02"
+  specialty_graphics:
+    exists: true
+    mechanism: >-
+      ServiceOntario, verbatim: "You can choose to include graphics on your licence
+      plate" and "There are over 60 graphics available to choose from." Graphic
+      plates are PERSONALIZED plates with a smaller character budget: "2 to 8
+      characters (letters and/or numbers) without a graphic - $310 / 2 to 6
+      characters (letters and/or numbers) with a graphic - $336.40".
+    why_not_modelled: >-
+      PRD-PLATES §2.5 excludes the individual specialty DESIGN catalogue from v1;
+      L2 indexes programs, L4 does designs. The graphic budget is carried instead
+      as a variant on `ca-on-personalized`, where it belongs, because the SERIAL
+      grammar is what changes.
+    sources:
+      - "https://www.ontario.ca/page/personalized-licence-plate  # ServiceOntario, accessed 2026-08-02: graphics, fees and the 8/6/5-character budgets"
+      - "https://www.ontario.ca/page/choose-licence-plate-graphic  # the official graphic chooser, accessed 2026-08-02"
+  veteran:
+    exists: true
+    mechanism: "ServiceOntario states the Veteran licence plate design as an option a green plate cannot take: 'Green licence plates are not customizable with the Veteran licence plate design or other personalized licence plate design.'"
+    why_not_modelled: "No format or colour published in any primary located; an ordinary serial on an alternative design. Recorded as a gap."
+    sources:
+      - "https://www.ontario.ca/page/get-green-licence-plate  # ServiceOntario, updated 10 July 2025, accessed 2026-08-02"
+
+series:
+
+  # =========================================================================
+  # THE CURRENT STANDARD PASSENGER SERIES — four letters, three numerals.
+  # =========================================================================
+  - id: ca-on-standard-1997
+    class: standard
+    categories: [car, van, bus]
+    period: { start: 1997 }
+    period_evidence: secondary-wikipedia
+    matching: strict
+    format:
+      pattern: "LLLL 999"
+      regex: '\A[A-Z]{4} ?\d{3}\z'
+      regex_strict: '\A[ABCDEFHJKLMNPRSTVWXYZ]{4} ?\d{3}\z'
+      charset:
+        excluded: [G, I, O, Q, U]
+        notes: >-
+          See `common.charset`. The exclusion is a TAGGED SECONDARY and lives only
+          in `regex_strict`. No Ontario statute, regulation or government page
+          states any letter exclusion.
+      structure:
+        - "characters 1-4: letter block, allocated sequentially by the Ministry"
+        - "characters 5-7: numerals 001-999 within the letter block"
+      progression: >-
+        Sequential: the article's issuance record runs AAAA-001 upward, with a
+        separate F-block reserved since April 2019 for the French-slogan plate and
+        GV/GW/VE reserved for the Green Vehicle programme (own series below).
+        THERE IS NO DATE OR REGION SIGNAL IN AN ONTARIO PASSENGER PLATE — no
+        equivalent of the DVLA age identifier and no equivalent of a German
+        district code. A parse API must not infer either.
+      separator_note: >-
+        The gap between the letter block and the numeral block is occupied by a
+        SCREENED CROWN GRAPHIC, not by a glyph. It is an emblem (see
+        `design.emblem`) and is never part of the serial. `pattern` renders the gap
+        as the emitted space; both regexes accept it as optional.
+    design:
+      plate: { w: 12, h: 6, unit: in, w_mm: 304.8, h_mm: 152.4, plate_basis: convention }
+      plate_note: "NOT an Ontario legal claim — see `common.dimensions`. No Ontario instrument prescribes a plate size."
+      background: { color: "#FFFFFF", finish: retroreflective, hex_basis: observed }
+      foreground: "#003C71"
+      colour_note: >-
+        Blue on reflective white. NEITHER COLOUR IS IN ANY ONTARIO INSTRUMENT: the
+        Highway Traffic Act and Reg. 628 are silent on colour. Both hexes are
+        `hex_basis: observed` and should be treated as unverified pending an MTO
+        specification.
+      legend_top: "ONTARIO"
+      legend_bottom_options: ["YOURS TO DISCOVER", "TANT À DÉCOUVRIR"]
+      legend_note: >-
+        The French-slogan plate is the SAME series in a different bottom legend,
+        allocated its own serial blocks (F-block exclusively since April 2019 per
+        the article). It is recorded as a variant rather than a series because
+        format and period are identical — the PRD-PLATES §2.3 test.
+      emblem: { present: true, rendered: placeholder, description: "provincial crown device, screened, between the letter and numeral groups" }
+      band: { side: none }
+      rear_differs: false
+      display: "front and rear (O. Reg. 628 s. 9(3)); validation, when required, in the upper right corner of the REAR plate (s. 9(1)(b))"
+      spec_history:
+        - { from: 1997, to: 2020, note: "embossed blue serial on reflective white, screened crown separator" }
+        - { from: 2020, note: "white base resumed after the blue base was abandoned in May 2020, with a more durable coating; the mark, the format and the colours are unchanged" }
+    variants:
+      - name: "French slogan (TANT À DÉCOUVRIR)"
+        format: { pattern: "LLLL 999", regex: '\A[A-Z]{4} ?\d{3}\z' }
+        note: "introduced 2008; per the article, exclusively F-block serials since April 2019. Same design but for the bottom legend."
+    region_encoding: none
+    region_encoding_note: "An Ontario plate encodes NO geography and NO date. There is no county legend, no regional prefix and no age identifier."
+    sources:
+      - "https://www.ontario.ca/laws/statute/90h08  # HTA s. 7(1)(b)(i): the plate shows 'the number of the permit issued for the vehicle'; s. 7(24) regulation-making power, which reaches display and never composition"
+      - "https://www.ontario.ca/laws/regulation/900628  # R.R.O. 1990, Reg. 628 s. 9(1),(3): front-and-rear display and the rear-plate validation corner"
+      - "https://www.ontario.ca/page/register-vehicle-permit-and-licence-plate  # ServiceOntario: 'Vehicle permits and licence plates are issued immediately'; automatic renewal for passenger, light commercial, motorcycle and moped plates"
+      - "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicle_registration_plates_of_Ontario  # TAGGED SECONDARY (PRD-PLATES §4): the ABCD-123 format, its 1997 start, and the G/I/O/Q/U exclusion. Read 2026-08-02. The article's own citation for the exclusion is a collector site, not a government source."
+    notes: >-
+      THE CURRENT ONTARIO PASSENGER PLATE, and the whole of it rests on a
+      SECONDARY for its start year — which is stated here rather than hidden.
+      period.start 1997 is the en.wikipedia table's date for the switch from
+      123-ABC to ABCD-123; the article footnotes the SERIAL RANGE to a collector
+      forum and the exclusion to a collector site, and dates the format change
+      itself with no footnote at all. No MTO or ServiceOntario page dates any
+      Ontario base or format, and the statute and regulation are silent on
+      composition (`common.charset.statutory_alphabet_absent`). So
+      `period_evidence: secondary-wikipedia` and 1997 is a flagged claim, not an
+      asserted fact (PRD-PLATES §9: primary-source-or-marked). WHAT IS
+      INDEPENDENTLY SOLID: that this format is CURRENT ISSUE is confirmed by
+      ServiceOntario's own personalized-plate page, which prices passenger plates
+      at "2 to 8 characters" and therefore presupposes a seven-character standard
+      arrangement; and the display, validation and ownership rules on this series
+      are all quoted from the Act and the regulation. THE ID IS DATED because the
+      1997 boundary is at least consistently reported across the article's own
+      issuance ranges; if a primary lands that moves it, the dated id gains a
+      former-id alias under the PRD-QUALITY I-5/I-6 contract rather than moving.
+
+  # =========================================================================
+  # ONE SERIES BACK — three numerals, three letters (1986-1997).
+  # =========================================================================
+  - id: ca-on-standard-1986
+    class: standard
+    categories: [car, van, bus]
+    period: { start: 1986, end: 1997 }
+    period_evidence: secondary-wikipedia
+    matching: strict
+    format:
+      pattern: "999 LLL"
+      regex: '\A\d{3} ?[A-Z]{3}\z'
+      regex_strict: '\A\d{3} ?[ABCDEFHJKLMNPRSTVWXYZ]{3}\z'
+      charset:
+        excluded: [G, I, O, Q, U]
+        notes: "the article states G, I, Q and U were unused in this format and that O was discontinued after the ZZO series in 1997 — so the strict twin here excludes all five, which is a DELIBERATE OVER-NARROWING for the tail of the run and is flagged rather than silently applied."
+      separator_note: "crown graphic in the gap, as on the current series"
+    design:
+      plate: { w: 12, h: 6, unit: in, plate_basis: convention }
+      background: { color: "#FFFFFF", finish: retroreflective, hex_basis: observed }
+      foreground: "#003C71"
+      legend_top: "ONTARIO"
+      legend_bottom_options: ["YOURS TO DISCOVER"]
+      emblem: { present: true, rendered: placeholder }
+      band: { side: none }
+      rear_differs: false
+    region_encoding: none
+    sources:
+      - "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicle_registration_plates_of_Ontario  # TAGGED SECONDARY: 123-ABC issued 1986-1997, ranges 001-AAA to 999-ZZZ; the 1994 switch to screened reflective plates inside the same format"
+      - "https://www.ontario.ca/laws/statute/90h08  # HTA s. 11(3): plates of this vintage remain lawfully transferable between the holder's vehicles of a similar class, which is why the series has no hard end for DISPLAY purposes"
+    notes: >-
+      THE IMMEDIATELY PRIOR PASSENGER FORMAT, authored because PRD-PLATES scopes
+      L2/L3 at the current series plus ONE back, and because Ontario plates are
+      permanent: since 1973 the province has not re-plated annually, so
+      123-ABC plates remain lawfully displayed in quantity. The period END is an
+      ISSUANCE end, not a validity end — a distinction that matters more in
+      Ontario than in most jurisdictions and is the reason this series is not
+      marked `ended: true`. Both boundary years are the article's, unfootnoted,
+      hence `secondary-wikipedia`. The 1994 change from embossed to screened
+      reflective plates happened INSIDE this format and is not cut as a series:
+      format, period and colours were unchanged and only the manufacturing method
+      moved (PRD-PLATES §2.3).
+
+  # =========================================================================
+  # THE 2020 BLUE BASE — a real four-month series, announced, issued, recalled.
+  # =========================================================================
+  - id: ca-on-standard-blue-2020
+    class: standard
+    categories: [car, van, bus]
+    period: { start: 2020, end: 2020 }
+    period_evidence: secondary-wikipedia
+    matching: strict
+    format:
+      pattern: "LLLL 999"
+      regex: '\A[A-Z]{4} ?\d{3}\z'
+      regex_strict: '\A[ABCDEFHJKLMNPRSTVWXYZ]{4} ?\d{3}\z'
+      charset: { excluded: [G, I, O, Q, U], notes: "identical to ca-on-standard-1997 — the MARK did not change, only the base" }
+      separator_note: "the crown moved to the bottom right and a stylized white trillium took the separator position; still a graphic, still never part of the serial"
+    design:
+      plate: { w: 12, h: 6, unit: in, plate_basis: convention }
+      background: { color: "#1B3A6B", finish: retroreflective, hex_basis: observed, note: "two-hue blue" }
+      foreground: "#FFFFFF"
+      legend_top: "Ontario"
+      legend_bottom_options: ["A PLACE TO GROW", "EN PLEIN ESSOR"]
+      emblem: { present: true, rendered: placeholder, description: "stylized white trillium as separator; crown at bottom right" }
+      band: { side: none }
+      rear_differs: false
+      material: "synthetic, not embossed"
+    sources:
+      - "https://news.ontario.ca/mgs/en/2019/04/open-for-business-and-a-place-to-grow-new-licence-plate-and-drivers-licence-to-reflect-ontarios-opti-2.html  # Government of Ontario news release, 15 April 2019, announcing the redesign and the 'A Place to Grow' slogan. FETCH FAILED on 2026-08-02: news.ontario.ca served no body to either the direct fetch or the Wayback copy attempted; the release is cited as the article's own primary and is NOT quoted here because it was not read."
+      - "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicle_registration_plates_of_Ontario  # TAGGED SECONDARY: issue from 1 February 2020, initial batch recalled after 4 March 2020, design scrapped 6 May 2020, blue stock exhausted through early June; serials CMAA-001 onward; the French 'EN PLEIN ESSOR' variant on F-block serials"
+    notes: >-
+      THE BLUE PLATE. Its own series because BOTH the design and the period differ
+      from ca-on-standard-1997 while the format does not (PRD-PLATES §2.3), and
+      because a consumer holding a photograph of a blue Ontario plate needs to be
+      told it is a four-month artefact rather than a current base. OVERLAP IS
+      DELIBERATE AND REAL: white "Yours to Discover" plates never stopped being
+      issued in French-slogan blocks and resumed in full in May 2020 while blue
+      stock ran out, so this series and ca-on-standard-1997 genuinely overlap in
+      2020 — the parallel-issuance case PRD-PLATES §2.2 contemplates. EVERY DATE
+      HERE IS SECONDARY. The Government of Ontario's own April 2019 announcement
+      and its February 2020 update are cited by the article and were BOTH
+      unreachable on 2026-08-02 (news.ontario.ca returned an empty body to the
+      direct fetch, to WebFetch and to the Wayback attempt), so nothing from them
+      is quoted. A verifier with Canadian network access should re-pin this
+      series first: it is the one series in this file where a government primary
+      is known to exist and known to be unread.
+
+  # =========================================================================
+  # GREEN VEHICLE PLATES — the Ontario electric series. A REAL parse signal:
+  # unlike Britain's green flash, the Ontario green plate changes the SERIAL.
+  # =========================================================================
+  - id: ca-on-green-2010
+    class: electric
+    categories: [car, van, truck]
+    period: { start: 2010 }
+    period_evidence: secondary-wikipedia
+    matching: strict
+    format:
+      pattern: "LLLL 999"
+      regex: '\A[A-Z]{4} ?\d{3}\z'
+      regex_strict: '\A(?:GV|GW|VE)[ABCDEFHJKLMNPRSTVWXYZ]{2} ?\d{3}\z'
+      charset:
+        notes: >-
+          The two-letter programme prefix is what makes this series parseable. GV
+          and GW carry the English "GREEN VEHICLE" legend and VE the French
+          "VÉHICULE ÉCOLOGIQUE" legend, per the article's issuance table. CONTRAST
+          plates/gb.yml `gb-green-zev-2020`, where the mark is unchanged and a
+          British ZEV is NOT identifiable from its registration string. Ontario's
+          is.
+      progression: "GVAA-001 onward, continuing into the GW block; VEAA-001 onward for the French legend"
+    design:
+      plate: { w: 12, h: 6, unit: in, plate_basis: convention }
+      background: { color: "#FFFFFF", finish: retroreflective, hex_basis: observed }
+      foreground: "#00843D"
+      colour_note: "green serial on white. No Ontario instrument states either colour; both are `hex_basis: observed`."
+      legend_top: "ONTARIO"
+      legend_bottom_options: ["GREEN VEHICLE", "VÉHICULE ÉCOLOGIQUE"]
+      emblem: { present: true, rendered: placeholder, description: "trillium graphic as separator" }
+      band: { side: none }
+      rear_differs: false
+    eligibility: >-
+      ServiceOntario, verbatim: eligible are "plug-in hybrid electric vehicles
+      (PHEV)", "battery electric vehicles (BEV)", "hydrogen fuel cell vehicles
+      (HFCVs)", "used 2010 or later model year PHEVs and BEVs" and vehicles running
+      in Ontario pilot programmes. Explicitly NOT eligible: "low-speed vehicles,
+      e-bikes, motorcycles, off-road vehicles, conventional hybrid electric vehicle
+      (HEVs), vehicles that have been converted to plug-in capability, commercial
+      vehicles with a registered gross weight (RGW) of more than 4,500 kg". Note
+      the PHEV inclusion — the Ontario test is a plug, not a tailpipe, which is the
+      exact inverse of the British reg. 16(11)(a) "cannot produce any tailpipe
+      emissions" test.
+    privilege: >-
+      ServiceOntario, verbatim: vehicles with green plates may drive in "High
+      Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) lanes with any number of occupants" and in "High
+      Occupancy Toll (HOT) lanes on 400-series highways and the Queen Elizabeth Way
+      (QEW) at no cost with any number of occupants". Since 25 November 2024
+      commercial vehicles of 3,001-4,500 kg are eligible.
+    restrictions: >-
+      ServiceOntario, verbatim: "Green vehicle licence plates are available at any
+      ServiceOntario centre. Online orders and personalized green vehicle licence
+      plates are not available." and "Green licence plates are not customizable
+      with the Veteran licence plate design or other personalized licence plate
+      design." The plates are OPTIONAL and cost the same as ordinary plates — so a
+      green plate proves an eligible powertrain and its absence proves nothing.
+    sources:
+      - "https://www.ontario.ca/page/get-green-licence-plate  # ServiceOntario, published 21 January 2022, updated 10 July 2025, accessed 2026-08-02: the eligibility list verbatim, the HOV/HOT privilege, the 25 November 2024 commercial extension, the no-online-order and no-personalization rules, and 'The plates are optional and cost the same as regular licence plates.'"
+      - "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicle_registration_plates_of_Ontario  # TAGGED SECONDARY: the 2010 first-issue year and the GV / GW / VE prefix blocks with their issuance ranges"
+    notes: >-
+      ONTARIO'S GREEN PLATE IS A SERIAL SIGNAL, NOT A DECORATION — the single most
+      consumer-useful fact in this file, and the reason this series is authored
+      rather than folded into the standard series. The ELIGIBILITY, PRIVILEGE and
+      RESTRICTION text above is quoted from ServiceOntario and is as good as
+      Ontario evidence gets. The PERIOD is not: 2010 is the article's first-issue
+      year with no footnote, hence `period_evidence: secondary-wikipedia`. The
+      former MTO programme page (mto.gov.on.ca/english/vehicles/electric/
+      green-licence-plate.shtml), which the article cites, is dead; its content
+      moved to the ontario.ca page cited above, which does not date the programme.
+
+  # =========================================================================
+  # COMMERCIAL — two letters, five numerals. A DIFFERENT PLATE AND A DIFFERENT
+  # STICKER CORNER, both of which follow from the regulation.
+  # =========================================================================
+  - id: ca-on-commercial-2011
+    class: standard
+    categories: [truck, van]
+    period: { start: 2011 }
+    period_evidence: secondary-wikipedia
+    matching: strict
+    format:
+      pattern: "LL 99999"
+      regex: '\A[A-Z]{2} ?\d{5}\z'
+      charset:
+        notes: >-
+          No letter exclusion is stated for the commercial format by any source
+          located, so NO `regex_strict` is authored — the absence is deliberate and
+          is not the same as "no exclusions exist". PRD-PLATES §2.7: a missing
+          strict twin does not weaken `matching: strict`.
+      progression: "AA-10001 upward per the article's issuance record; a separate D-block (DA-10001 onward) carries the French slogan"
+    design:
+      plate: { w: 12, h: 6, unit: in, plate_basis: convention }
+      background: { color: "#FFFFFF", finish: retroreflective, hex_basis: observed }
+      foreground: "#003C71"
+      legend_top: "ONTARIO"
+      legend_bottom_options: ["YOURS TO DISCOVER", "TANT À DÉCOUVRIR"]
+      emblem: { present: true, rendered: placeholder, description: "crown separator" }
+      band: { side: none }
+      rear_differs: false
+      display: "front and rear (O. Reg. 628 s. 9(3)); validation in the upper right corner of the FRONT plate (s. 9(1)(a)) — the inverse of a passenger vehicle, and a class signal a photograph carries"
+    pickup_truck_rule: >-
+      ServiceOntario, verbatim: "In Ontario, under the Highway Traffic Act all
+      vehicles defined as pickup trucks are classed as commercial vehicles
+      regardless of their intended use." So an ordinary private pick-up wears a
+      commercial plate in Ontario, and a consumer inferring "commercial use" from
+      this series will be wrong a great deal of the time.
+    sources:
+      - "https://www.ontario.ca/laws/regulation/900628  # Reg. 628 s. 9(1)(a): the commercial validation sticker goes on the FRONT plate; s. 8.0.1: CVOR certificate condition on issuing plates or validation for certain commercial vehicles"
+      - "https://www.ontario.ca/page/get-green-licence-plate  # ServiceOntario, accessed 2026-08-02, for the pickup-truck classification quoted above and the 4,500 kg RGW ceiling"
+      - "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicle_registration_plates_of_Ontario  # TAGGED SECONDARY: the AB-12345 commercial format from 2011 and its issuance ranges; the DA French block"
+    notes: >-
+      ONTARIO'S COMMERCIAL PLATE IS A STANDARD-CLASS PLATE ON A DIFFERENT SERIAL
+      SHAPE, which is why `class: standard` and not a bespoke value: the
+      _meta/classes.yml vocabulary has no "commercial" member and inventing one ad
+      hoc is forbidden. What separates it from ca-on-standard-1997 is format and
+      the front-plate sticker corner, both recorded. period.start 2011 is the
+      article's, unfootnoted.
+
+  # =========================================================================
+  # MOTORCYCLE — rear only, small plate, its own serial line.
+  # =========================================================================
+  - id: ca-on-motorcycle-2024
+    class: motorcycle
+    categories: [motorcycle]
+    period: { start: 2024 }
+    period_evidence: secondary-wikipedia
+    matching: strict
+    format:
+      pattern: "99L9L"
+      regex: '\A\d{2}[A-Z]\d[A-Z]\z'
+      charset: { notes: "no exclusion stated by any source located; no strict twin authored" }
+      layout_note: "no separator and no gap: the Ontario motorcycle serial is printed as one five-character block under a screened 'ONT' legend"
+    design:
+      plate_note: "reduced motorcycle size; no Ontario instrument states it, and no measured figure was obtained. Deliberately absent rather than guessed."
+      background: { color: "#FFFFFF", finish: retroreflective, hex_basis: observed }
+      foreground: "#003C71"
+      legend_top: "ONT"
+      emblem: { present: false, rendered: placeholder }
+      band: { side: none }
+      rear_differs: false
+      display: "REAR ONLY — O. Reg. 628 s. 9(4), verbatim: 'The number plate for a motorcycle, motor assisted bicycle or trailer shall be attached to and exposed in a conspicuous position on the rear of the vehicle.'"
+    sources:
+      - "https://www.ontario.ca/laws/regulation/900628  # Reg. 628 s. 9(4): rear-only display for a motorcycle or motor assisted bicycle"
+      - "https://www.ontario.ca/page/personalized-licence-plate  # ServiceOntario, accessed 2026-08-02: 'Personalized motorcycle plates may have 2 to 5 characters.' — a GOVERNMENT statement that the motorcycle serial budget is five, which independently corroborates the five-character shape below"
+      - "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicle_registration_plates_of_Ontario  # TAGGED SECONDARY: the 12A3B arrangement from 2024 and its issuance range"
+    notes: >-
+      THE CURRENT ONTARIO MOTORCYCLE SERIES, and the one series in this file whose
+      LENGTH is corroborated by a government source: ServiceOntario prices
+      personalized motorcycle plates at "2 to 5 characters", which is exactly the
+      five-character budget the standard motorcycle serial uses. The specific
+      ARRANGEMENT (two digits, letter, digit, letter) and the 2024 start are the
+      article's and are unfootnoted. Ontario has cycled through six five-character
+      motorcycle arrangements since 1996 (AB123, 1A234, 123A4, 1234A, 1A2B3,
+      12A3B); only the current one and its immediate predecessor are authored, per
+      the L2/L3 scope rule.
+
+  - id: ca-on-motorcycle-2013
+    class: motorcycle
+    categories: [motorcycle]
+    period: { start: 2013, end: 2024 }
+    period_evidence: secondary-wikipedia
+    matching: strict
+    format:
+      pattern: "9L9L9"
+      regex: '\A\d[A-Z]\d[A-Z]\d\z'
+    design:
+      background: { color: "#FFFFFF", finish: retroreflective, hex_basis: observed }
+      foreground: "#003C71"
+      legend_top: "ONT"
+      band: { side: none }
+      rear_differs: false
+    sources:
+      - "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicle_registration_plates_of_Ontario  # TAGGED SECONDARY: the 1A2B3 arrangement, 2013-2024, ranges 0A0A1 onward"
+      - "https://www.ontario.ca/laws/regulation/900628  # Reg. 628 s. 9(4): the same rear-only rule applies"
+    notes: >-
+      ONE SERIES BACK for motorcycles. Authored because Ontario plates are
+      permanent and 1A2B3 machines are still on the road; the end year is an
+      ISSUANCE end, not a validity end, exactly as on ca-on-standard-1986. Both
+      boundaries are the article's, unfootnoted.
+
+  # =========================================================================
+  # TRAILER — rear only, permanent (no annual validation since 1980).
+  # =========================================================================
+  - id: ca-on-trailer-2025
+    class: trailer
+    categories: [trailer]
+    period: { start: 2025 }
+    period_evidence: secondary-wikipedia
+    matching: strict
+    format:
+      pattern: "LL9 99L"
+      regex: '\A[A-Z]{2}\d ?\d{2}[A-Z]\z'
+      charset: { notes: "no exclusion stated by any located source for the current trailer format" }
+    design:
+      plate: { w: 12, h: 6, unit: in, plate_basis: convention }
+      background: { color: "#FFFFFF", finish: retroreflective, hex_basis: observed }
+      foreground: "#003C71"
+      legend_top: "ONTARIO"
+      legend_side: "TRAILER, screened vertically at the left"
+      emblem: { present: true, rendered: placeholder }
+      band: { side: none }
+      rear_differs: false
+      display: "REAR ONLY (O. Reg. 628 s. 9(4))"
+    validation: "HTA s. 7(4): a trailer needs a permit and 'there is displayed on the trailer, in the prescribed manner, a number plate showing the number of the permit issued for the trailer.' Ontario trailer plates carry a one-time fee rather than annual validation."
+    sources:
+      - "https://www.ontario.ca/laws/statute/90h08  # HTA s. 7(4): the trailer permit and plate requirement"
+      - "https://www.ontario.ca/laws/regulation/900628  # Reg. 628 s. 9(4): rear-only display for a trailer"
+      - "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicle_registration_plates_of_Ontario  # TAGGED SECONDARY: the AB1-23C trailer arrangement from 2025 and its ranges"
+    notes: >-
+      THE CURRENT ONTARIO TRAILER SERIES. period.start 2025 is the article's,
+      unfootnoted, and is the youngest claim in this file — a verifier should treat
+      it as the least settled. The trailer plate is genuinely permanent, which is
+      why its predecessor below carries an issuance end and no `ended: true`.
+
+  - id: ca-on-trailer-2002
+    class: trailer
+    categories: [trailer]
+    period: { start: 2002, end: 2025 }
+    period_evidence: secondary-wikipedia
+    matching: strict
+    format:
+      pattern: "L99 99L"
+      regex: '\A[A-Z]\d{2} ?\d{2}[A-Z]\z'
+    design:
+      plate: { w: 12, h: 6, unit: in, plate_basis: convention }
+      background: { color: "#FFFFFF", finish: retroreflective, hex_basis: observed }
+      foreground: "#003C71"
+      legend_top: "ONTARIO"
+      legend_side: "TRAILER, screened vertically at the left"
+      band: { side: none }
+      rear_differs: false
+    sources:
+      - "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicle_registration_plates_of_Ontario  # TAGGED SECONDARY: the A12-34B trailer arrangement, 2002-2025, ranges A10-01A to Z99-99Z"
+      - "https://www.ontario.ca/laws/regulation/900628  # Reg. 628 s. 9(4)"
+    notes: >-
+      ONE SERIES BACK for trailers, and the bulk of the Ontario trailer fleet: the
+      A12-34B range ran twenty-three years and to exhaustion (Z99-99Z), which is
+      why the successor above changed shape. Both boundaries are the article's.
+
+  # =========================================================================
+  # HISTORIC — the class the STATUTE defines, unusually.
+  # =========================================================================
+  - id: ca-on-historic-2007
+    class: historic
+    categories: [car, van, truck, motorcycle]
+    period: { start: 2007 }
+    period_evidence: secondary-wikipedia
+    matching: strict
+    format:
+      pattern: "9H9999"
+      regex: '\A\dH\d{4}\z'
+      charset: { notes: "the literal H in position 2 is the programme marker; the rest is numeric. The pattern spells H as an ordinary literal letter, which the §2.6 alphabet permits without an escape (the escape is only needed for the DSL's own 9 and L tokens)." }
+      progression: "1H0001 upward per the article's issuance record"
+    design:
+      plate: { w: 12, h: 6, unit: in, plate_basis: convention }
+      background: { color: "#FFFFFF", finish: retroreflective, hex_basis: observed }
+      foreground: "#003C71"
+      legend_top: "ONTARIO"
+      legend_side: "HISTORIC, screened vertically at the left"
+      emblem: { present: true, rendered: placeholder, description: "crown separator" }
+      band: { side: none }
+      rear_differs: false
+    eligibility: >-
+      HTA s. 7(1.1), verbatim: "'historic vehicle' means a motor vehicle that,
+      (a) is at least 30 years old, and (b) is substantially unchanged or
+      unmodified from the original manufacturer's product." Reg. 628 s. 1(1)
+      carries its own definition "despite the definition in subsection 7 (1.1) of
+      the Act" for registration purposes. A HISTORIC plate is NOT a
+      year-of-manufacture plate — see `classes_not_modelled.year_of_manufacture`.
+    sources:
+      - "https://www.ontario.ca/laws/statute/90h08  # HTA s. 7(1.1): the 30-year, substantially-unmodified statutory definition"
+      - "https://www.ontario.ca/laws/regulation/900628  # Reg. 628 s. 1(1) 'historic vehicle', which overrides the Act's definition for registration purposes"
+      - "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicle_registration_plates_of_Ontario  # TAGGED SECONDARY: the 1H2345 arrangement from 2007 and its issuance range; the 1969 origin of the class and the 1973 switch to permanent plates"
+    notes: >-
+      THE ELIGIBILITY TEST IS STATUTORY AND THE FORMAT IS NOT — the split this
+      whole file is built around, in one series. HTA s. 7(1.1) states the 30-year
+      rule in terms; nothing in the Act or the regulation says a historic plate
+      reads 1H2345, and 2007 is the article's unfootnoted date.
+
+  # =========================================================================
+  # DIPLOMATIC — red plates, and a FEDERAL rule sits over the provincial series.
+  # =========================================================================
+  - id: ca-on-diplomatic-1994
+    class: diplomatic
+    categories: [car, van]
+    period: { start: 1994 }
+    period_evidence: secondary-wikipedia
+    matching: strict
+    format:
+      pattern: "999 LLL"
+      regex: '\A\d{3} ?[A-Z]{3}\z'
+      charset: { notes: "no exclusion located. NOTE THE COLLISION RISK a parse API must handle: the printed serial shape is identical to ca-on-standard-1986, and only the PLATE COLOUR distinguishes them. A string alone cannot separate the two." }
+    design:
+      plate: { w: 12, h: 6, unit: in, plate_basis: convention }
+      background: { color: "#C8102E", finish: retroreflective, hex_basis: observed }
+      foreground: "#FFFFFF"
+      colour_note: "white on reflective red. The article states the red is EXCLUSIVE to diplomatic plates in Ontario. No instrument states the colour; `hex_basis: observed`."
+      legend_top: "ONTARIO"
+      legend_bottom_options: ["YOURS TO DISCOVER"]
+      emblem: { present: true, rendered: placeholder, description: "crown separator" }
+      band: { side: none }
+      rear_differs: false
+    federal_overlay: >-
+      Global Affairs Canada's Office of Protocol sets the rule that foreign
+      representatives and accredited family members must obtain the provincial
+      diplomatic plate when registering a passenger vehicle, within 30 days of
+      taking up residence, and that the rule does not extend to motorcycles. The
+      GAC guidance page was FETCHED on 2026-08-02 and returned a navigation shell
+      only (736 characters, no policy body), so the rule is recorded here from the
+      article's summary of it and is NOT quoted. Flagged for the verifier.
+    sources:
+      - "https://www.international.gc.ca/protocol-protocole/policies-politiques/licence-plates-guidelines_lignes-directrices-plaques-immatriculation.aspx?lang=eng  # Global Affairs Canada, 'Issuance of Licence Plates to Foreign Representatives, including Honorary Consular Officers' — FETCHED 2026-08-02, returned a navigation shell with no policy body; cited as the known federal primary, unread"
+      - "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicle_registration_plates_of_Ontario  # TAGGED SECONDARY: the 1994 base, the 123-ABC diplomatic format, the red-is-exclusive claim, and the 30-day / no-motorcycle federal rule"
+    notes: >-
+      THE WEAKEST-SOURCED SERIES IN THIS FILE, and it says so. Ontario publishes
+      nothing about diplomatic plates; the federal page that would govern them was
+      unreadable from this location. Everything here is the article's. It is
+      authored anyway because the class vocabulary has a `diplomatic` member, the
+      colour is genuinely diagnostic on the road, and the SERIAL COLLISION with
+      ca-on-standard-1986 is a fact a parse API needs stated rather than
+      discovered. A verifier should re-pin this from Global Affairs Canada before
+      the file is applied.
+
+  # =========================================================================
+  # PERSONALIZED — the ONE series whose grammar is authority-sourced end to end.
+  # =========================================================================
+  - id: ca-on-personalized
+    class: personalized
+    categories: [car, van, truck, motorcycle]
+    period: { start: 1998 }
+    period_evidence: statutory-authority-undated
+    matching: strict
+    format:
+      pattern: "LLLLLLLL"
+      regex: '\A[A-Z0-9]{2,8}\z'
+      charset:
+        notes: >-
+          ServiceOntario, verbatim: "A personalized licence plate message may
+          contain almost any combination of letters and numbers." and
+          "Personalized passenger and commercial plates may have 2 to 8
+          characters. Personalized motorcycle plates may have 2 to 5 characters."
+          The refusal rules are equally quotable and are real charset constraints:
+          the Ministry rejects "combinations with: more than 4 identical characters
+          in sequence" and "interchangeable letters or numbers (such as S/5, A/4,
+          G/6, Q/O) — for example, if a plate has been issued with an 'S' in its
+          combination and an identical plate request is submitted substituting the
+          'S' with a '5', that plate will not be approved". Neither rule is
+          encoded in a regex: the first is expressible but would narrow the series
+          against a discretionary standard, and the second is a COLLISION rule
+          against the existing issue rather than a property of the string.
+      length_note: "2-8 for passenger and commercial; 2-5 for motorcycle (variant below); 2-6 when a graphic is chosen (ServiceOntario fee table)."
+    design:
+      plate: { w: 12, h: 6, unit: in, plate_basis: convention }
+      background: { color: "#FFFFFF", finish: retroreflective, hex_basis: observed }
+      foreground: "#003C71"
+      legend_top: "ONTARIO"
+      legend_bottom_options: ["YOURS TO DISCOVER", "TANT À DÉCOUVRIR"]
+      emblem: { present: true, rendered: placeholder }
+      band: { side: none }
+      rear_differs: false
+      graphics_note: "ServiceOntario: 'There are over 60 graphics available to choose from.' The graphic occupies plate area and costs two characters of serial budget."
+    variants:
+      - name: "motorcycle personalized"
+        format: { pattern: "LLLLL", regex: '\A[A-Z0-9]{2,5}\z' }
+        note: "ServiceOntario, verbatim: 'Personalized motorcycle plates may have 2 to 5 characters.' and 'Personalized licence plates cannot be registered to limited speed motorcycles.'"
+      - name: "personalized with graphic"
+        format: { pattern: "LLLLLL", regex: '\A[A-Z0-9]{2,6}\z' }
+        note: "ServiceOntario fee table: '2 to 6 characters (letters and/or numbers) with a graphic - $336.40', against '2 to 8 characters ... without a graphic - $310'."
+    transfer_rule: >-
+      ServiceOntario, verbatim: "A personalized licence plate can be transferred
+      only once to another person before it is attached to a vehicle. Once the
+      plate is registered to a vehicle, it cannot be transferred again." — which
+      sits on top of the ordinary Ontario owner-binding rule (HTA s. 11(3)).
+    sources:
+      - "https://www.ontario.ca/page/personalized-licence-plate  # ServiceOntario, accessed 2026-08-02: the 2-8 / 2-5 / 2-6 character budgets verbatim, the 'almost any combination of letters and numbers' statement, the four-identical-character and interchangeable-character refusal rules, the gift/transfer rule and the fee table"
+      - "https://www.ontario.ca/laws/statute/90h08  # HTA s. 7(24)(o): the Lieutenant Governor in Council may make regulations 'prescribing the criteria for the issuance, retention and return of a number plate bearing a requested number' — the statutory hook for the whole programme; HTA s. 12(3)(a) confirms 'number plate' includes 'a number plate bearing a requested number'"
+    notes: >-
+      THE ONLY ONTARIO SERIES WHOSE REGEX IS AUTHORITY-SOURCED END TO END. The
+      statute creates the class (s. 7(24)(o), s. 12(3)(a)) and ServiceOntario
+      publishes the exact character budgets, so `regex` here is a real claim rather
+      than a reported shape. PERIOD IS THE WEAK PART and is graded honestly:
+      `statutory-authority-undated`. HTA s. 7(24)(o) and s. 12(3)(a) both entered
+      the Act by 1999, c. 12, Sched. R, in force 1 January 2001 per the e-Laws
+      amendment table, and Ontario's requested-number programme demonstrably
+      predates that consolidation. 1998 is recorded as a conservative start with no
+      primary behind the exact year; a verifier should either pin it or replace it
+      with the 2001 in-force date and re-grade to `enabling-instrument`. THE
+      OVERLAP with every other Ontario series is by construction — a personalized
+      plate is an ordinary plate with a chosen serial, so its regex deliberately
+      swallows the standard shapes, and `matching: strict` is still correct because
+      the authority really does issue any 2-8 alphanumeric string.