Dalhousie University is under fire again for being linked to misogyny, after a local group launched a protest about a controversial comedian’s upcoming show at the Halifax campus.

Two banners appeared overnight — one on Gottingen Street and the other on the Dalhousie campus — criticizing the university for allowing U.S. comedian Daniel Tosh to hold four shows in June at Dal’s Rebecca Cohn Auditorium.

Both were promptly taken down Wednesday morning, but the message against the comedian, who is known for off-colour or offensive humour, was received.

“Dalhousie really should have made a quick Google search and had they done that on the first page they would have discovered 40 per cent of the results were rape related, and that should have raised alarm bells at the university,” said local comedian Marc Sauvé.

Tosh has been criticized in the past for making jokes about rape.

His appearances at Dal just weeks after the university released a report on the scandal that exposed misogyny at the Dalhousie dental school has some questioning the university’s values.

As one of the banners bluntly stated: “Dal still welcomes misogyny. Stop Tosh.”

University officials declined to answer questions on Wednesday, instead releasing a statement saying Dalhousie doesn’t condone sexism and that the theatre is used as a rental facility.

“We rent the auditorium and our services to local and national promoters, producers and agencies to present their artists and entertainers,” said Heather McGean of the Dalhousie Arts Centre in a statement.

Both the group behind the banners and the comedian’s promoter did not answer inquiries from CTV News — but others didn’t hesitate to speak out.

“It is so hypocritical of Dalhousie,” said Carmella Farahbakhsh of South House, a sexual and gender resource centre at Dalhousie.

“I think it is incredible that people are speaking out and that community members are outraged and speaking out together, but I think it is really sad that it has to come to a point where Dalhousie is just ignoring its community,” Farahbakhsh said.

Some are demanding that Tosh’s shows be either cancelled or moved off Dalhousie property.

For local resident Glen Matthews, walking by the banner being taken down on Gottingen Street, the matter is a head-shaker.

“I don't know what Dal is doing bringing Daniel Tosh,” he said.

“It is a marriage made in bad PR.”

With files from CTV Atlantic’s Kelland Sundahl