Mayor Cam Guthrie says he understands by commenting on offensive posters found on the University of Guelph campus he is playing into the hands of those who put them up.
A sticker found on the U of G campus Friday features a cartoon representation of the Prophet Mohammed with a speech balloon reading, ‘feminism is a cancer, wage gap is a myth.’
Posters have also been found in other areas of the city.
There’s no room in the city for this type of dialogue, said Guthrie.
“It’s not uplifting to anybody. It’s hateful and it’s so utterly ridiculous that — if it wasn’t involving hate towards women or hate toward religious groups it would be comical,” said Guthrie.
“This doesn’t represent Guelph,” he added.
The people putting up the signs obviously have a lot of time on their hands, said Guthrie.
On Thursday, a post on the U of G website said numerous posters that were found on the university campus had been removed because they were deemed disrespectful, especially to Muslim, Jewish and LGBTQ+ members.
Reached Friday, U of G associate vice-president Brenda Whiteside said Campus Community Police and Guelph Police Service are investigating.
“This is increasingly looking like an external person or group,” said Whiteside.
She said the U of G community is saddened that the disrespectful action is hurtful and out of alignment with the university’s values.
Discriminatory posters have been found recently on campuses across the United States and Canada, including University of Victoria, University of Toronto and others.
In a statement made on Facebook, the U of G Central Student Association (CSA) condemned the posters and the quotes being falsely attributed to the Prophet Mohammed.
“The CSA is firm in its stance against all forms of oppression including but not limited to Islamophobia, transphobia, homophobia, xenophobia, antisemitism and anti-black racism,” said the statement.
Guthrie said he believes the posters were made specifically to incite hateful dialogue that has no place in the city or on the U of G campus.
U of G does a great job attracting a lot of diversity to its campus and to the city of Guelph, said Guthrie.
He said the people creating the signs, on the other hand, are doing nothing to contribute to society as a whole.
“We are never going to be immune to a handful of idiots and that is what these people are,” said Guthrie.
Campus Community Police used black spray paint to cover the cartoon found Friday near University Centre.
“They need to come down,” said Guthrie of the stickers.
Speaking out against the posters gets the message across that the hateful dialogue will not be tolerated, said Guthrie, but he also acknowledges there is a side effect.
“It’s only feeding the very people who are snickering in the corner because they seem like they have accomplished what they set out to do,” said Guthrie.
“To be honest with you, talking about it at all is probably what they want to get out of it,” he added.
