Misplaced Pages

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Kevin Potvin (born 1962 in Port Arthur, Ontario) is a newspaper publisher and columnist, small business owner and politician based in Vancouver, British Columbia. He runs the Magpie Magazine Gallery, a small business, and The Republic of East Vancouver, an alternative biweekly newspaper, both founded by him. Since 1995 he has written a regular opinion column in the Vancouver Courier.

Politics

In 2005 Potvin ran for councillor in the Vancouver municipal election. He received 10,806 votes, placing 22nd in the polls (with the first ten being elected to council), gaining the most votes for an independent.

In fall 2006, he was elected president of the Grandview-Woodland Area Council.

On 15 April 2007, Elizabeth May, leader of the Green Party of Canada, issued a release stating that Potvin would not be allowed to run as a candidate in the riding of Vancouver-Kingsway. The decision was made after a controversy developed over an article Potvin wrote following the September 11 attacks (see below). May cited Potvin's remarks as "antithetical" to Green Party values.

Controversies

Globe and Mail report

On May 6, 2006, The Globe and Mail printed an article by Shannon Rupp on the debate over Misplaced Pages's reliability based on Kevin Potvin's entry on himself. According to The Globe and Mail, Potvin created the entry as part of a publicity campaign to get elected to Vancouver City Council.

Regarding Potvin's claim that his work had appeared in Harper's Magazine and the The Atlantic Monthly, the paper said, "According to Harper's magazine, Mr. Potvin had a letter to the editor printed once, in November of 1992. The Atlantic could find no record of Mr. Potvin -- he says he wrote 'a substantial letter to the editor' in 1987, but the magazine does not archive letters."

According to the newspaper, when asked about his Misplaced Pages entry, Potvin "disagreed that it was misleading, or that he inflated his résumé." Potvin said that he did not know the identity of the editor who added the "investigative reporting" accolades to the Misplaced Pages article. "'I have my readers,' he added, 'and I think there are people who would say that. It's not a thing which you can be factually wrong or right about. I think I am an investigative journalist. I investigate. I write. But I think facts are just what people say they are.'"

Potvin wrote a rejoinder in The Republic arguing that the Globe and Mail article was motivated by its author's personal dislike of him, likely stemming from an earlier disagreement between the two on a journalism listserve and criticism published in The Republic of The Tyee, an online magazine to which Shannon Rupp regularly contributes, as well as professionally trained journalists generally. In making his case, Potvin pointed out that while the article was ostensibly about the accuracy of Misplaced Pages, the encyclopedia was mentioned 12 times in the article compared with 26 references to himself, "who is, on the national stage, a nobody."

Potvin has also been a contributor to the Globe and Mail.

Remarks about 9/11 attacks

On April 12, 2007, Public Eye Online reported that Potvin had written an article in 2002 about the September 11, 2001, attacks in which he reported his reaction to the planes hitting the twin towers.

He wrote, "When I saw the first tower cascade down into that enormous plume of dust and paper, there was a little voice inside me that said, 'Yeah!' When the second tower came down the same way, that little voice said, 'Beautiful!' When the visage of the Pentagon appeared on the TV with a gaping and smoking hole in its side, that little voice had nearly taken me over, and I felt an urge to pump my fist in the air"

Potvin subsequently told the Canadian Press, "If you read the story that I wrote, you'll notice that I'm talking about it on a symbolic level . . . I go to great pains to make clear that I'm not talking about the deaths of anybody. After all, as you can imagine, I'm a human being. I'm a father, I'm a hockey dad, I'm a businessman, I'm a community leader. I'm obviously not going to be revelling in the deaths of anybody."

In regards to 9/11 conspiracy theories, he has stated that he is does not believe the official version of the events on September 11 2001 is any more credible than alternative explanations.

External links

• The Republic of East Vancouver, newspaper published by Kevin Potvin.
• The Vancouver Courier, newspaper with a regular column by Kevin Potvin.

References

1. "May, candidate have 'irreconcilable differences'". CTV. April 15, 2007. Retrieved 2007-04-28.
2. ^ Rupp, Shannon (2006-05-06). "Working through Misplaced Pages's vanity fair". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved 2007-04-28.
3. Potvin, Kevin (May/June 2006). "The Globe and Mail savages The Republic, but why?". The Republic. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Text "2007-04-28" ignored (help); Text "accessdate" ignored (help)
4. Potvin, Kevin (October 19, 2005). "Neighbourhood commercial districts: A rescue plan for small business in Vancouver". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved 2007-04-28.
5. Holman, Sean (April 12, 2007). "Potvin reacts to his "revolting confession"". Public Eye Online. Retrieved 2007-04-28.
6. Potvin, Kevin (November 28, 2007). "A revolting confession". The Republic. {{cite web}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help); Missing or empty |url= (help)
7. "Green party candidate says pro-9/11 column just symbolic". CBC. April 13, 2007. Retrieved 2007-04-28.
8. , online video at Sunday Magazine. Retrieved 28 April 2007.

• Canadian journalists
• 1962 births
• Living people