Yet another poster depicting Nobel Prize winning scientist Marie Curie was sent this month via email to some Waterloo students and some professors in the Department of Women’s Studies, which read “THE TRUTH…First she took Hiroshima and now she takes Fukushima. The devil always takes Manhattan before he takes Berlin!”
This poster is linked to similar posters found on campus in mid-February plastered on top of the election posters of female candidates running in the FedS Election reading “THE TRUTH. The brightest Woman this Earth ever created was Marie Curie, The mother of the Nuclear Bomb. You tell me if the plan of Women leading Men is still a good idea!”
The posters aim to imply that nuclear weapons and the recent incident at the Fukushima Da-ini power plant in Japan are a result of Marie Curie’s development of techniques for isolating radioactive isotopes and her contribution to the theory of radioactivity.
In addition to targeting women, some of the newer posters sent out also target Islam, Ghandi and Darwin.
Days after the first posters came out, an email was sent to some members of the UW community from a Gmail account impersonating University President Feridun Hamdullahpur. The fake emails expressed the President’s support of the sexist posters. Several students have also received Facebook messages indicating that women are morally corrupt.
At this time, the Waterloo Regional Police have been assisting in a forensic investigation of the posters. IST has also been contacted in an attempt to find the source of the posters. Attempts have been made to electronically track down the person or group of people responsible; however Google and Facebook, whose servers are located in the US, will not disclose information about the sender as per their privacy policies.
In response to the continued incidents and the concern expressed by students about safety, UW Police have taken several measures in order to increase safety on campus. Since the poster incident and fake email were sent out a month ago, there has been an increased police presence on campus.
Until the end of the term, parking will be free in most lots after 6:30 pm. For those who don’t drive, and don’t wish to walk in the evening, the University has both an on-campus shuttle, and an off-campus shuttle available to students free of charge. The on-campus shuttle operates every evening from 7:00 pm until 2:00 am. The off-campus shuttle departs from the SLC every hour at quarter-after, starting at 7:15 pm and ending at 1:15 am.
Although there has been much talk about the posters and emails, very little factual information about the incidents is available. Most of the information surrounding the incidents has infiltrated campus in the form of hearsay and rumours.
The incidents have also received media attention outside of campus, including several articles in The Record and video pieces from CTV News.
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