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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. Potvin told The Globe and Mail, he 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.'"
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 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.
National Post Controversy
In an April 14, 2007 article headlined "Would you vote for this man?" The National Post newspaper described Potvin's writing this way: "His ramblings about terrorism, described in yesterday's National Post, show that he's an unsavoury ignoramus." It continued, "He is a conspiracy theorist himself and has used his newspaper to question "the official version of events of 9/11," suggesting there was "participation" of the U.S. government and `covert agencies.'"
Potvin explains his kind of journalism
- - From "To be brutally honest," in The Republic of East Vancouver, April 12:
"...I went home and got out my pad of paper and made notes of everything that I could detect I was feeling. This is one of my journalistic techniques, it’s a form of shorthand. Rather than make notes of speeches at press conferences and other events, I instead pay attention and focus on the speaker, and then afterward make notes of exactly how I feel. Later, when I need to write up the story, I refer to my notes, and by being reminded of my feelings at the time, I remember everything that was said, and what’s more, I retain the meaning. "
External links
- The Republic of East Vancouver, newspaper published by Kevin Potvin.
- The Vancouver Courier, newspaper with a regular column by Kevin Potvin.
References
- "May, candidate have 'irreconcilable differences'". CTV. April 15, 2007. Retrieved 2007-04-28.
- ^ Rupp, Shannon (2006-05-06). "Working through Misplaced Pages's vanity fair". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved 2007-04-28.
- Holman, Sean (April 12, 2007). "Potvin reacts to his "revolting confession"". Public Eye Online. Retrieved 2007-04-28.
- Potvin, Kevin (November 28, 2007). "A revolting confession". The Republic. Retrieved 2007-04-28.
- "Green party candidate says pro-9/11 column just symbolic". CBC. April 13, 2007. Retrieved 2007-04-28.
- , online video at Sunday Magazine. Retrieved 28 April 2007.