Publisher Kevin Potvin moves back inside a Vancouver
coffee shop yesterday after reading a statement.
LYLE STAFFORD FOR NATIONAL POST
Posted on 04/14/2007 7:48:25 AM PDT by GMMAC
Green candidate, 9/11 theorist stirs debate
By Brian Hutchinson, National Post
Published: Friday, April 13, 2007
Kevin Potvin, a federal Green party candidate in Vancouver, has admitted his spirits soared while watching the 9/11 terrorist events unfold on television.
"Beautiful!" he describes a little voice inside him saying, when the second twin tower in New York City fell, and thousands died.
Then came news that the Pentagon in Washington was hit. More deaths. "I felt an urge to pump my fist in the air," wrote Mr. Potvin in the smudgy pages of the Republic of East Vancouver, a biweekly newspaper he publishes.
Publisher Kevin Potvin moves back inside a Vancouver
coffee shop yesterday after reading a statement.
LYLE STAFFORD FOR NATIONAL POST
The 2005 London subway bombings? These "were not cowardly, despicable and unspeakable acts; they were acts of war," he wrote later.
Islamic terrorists are "defending themselves against cultural genocide … Can you blame them?" Some already know about Mr. Potvin and his versions of the truth.
He has written what some suggest are inflated accounts about himself on Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia. His ramblings about terrorism, described in yesterday’s National Post, show that he's an unsavoury ignoramus.
Given an opportunity yesterday to revoke Mr. Potvin's acclamation as her candidate in Vancouver-Kingsway, Green party leader Elizabeth May passed.
Ms. May already had her hands full. She was busy explaining at a morning news conference why she had just formed an alliance, of sorts, with the federal Liberal party. Come the next election, the Grits will not field a candidate in the Nova Scotia riding where she intends to run. Presumably, Ms. May will say nice things about the Liberals and its leader, Stéphane Dion.
And Mr. Potvin? She learned of his 9/11 remarks, after reading Friday’s Post. She called them "despicable."
"I was just shattered by 9/11. I could barely function for two weeks," she said. "The idea that somebody felt celebratory about it makes my stomach turn, so I will talk to him, I'll find out what his views are."
But she gave her candidate the "benefit of the doubt," and an opportunity to clarify his position. Mr. Potvin had his chance hours later, at an East Vancouver coffee shop. The media were notified; he would address the matter in a prepared statement, which he distributed on the Internet. He was already scheduled to appear at the café, to discuss with people what he calls "9/11 truth and its implications for Canadian foreign policy."
A handful of reporters arrived. Mr. Potvin was seated at a table inside, with several Green party supporters. A number of excited 9/11 conspiracy theorists buzzed about. Some were armed with pamphlets and compact disks.
"Here, take this," insisted one man, pressing a photocopied handbill into my hands. "The War On Terror Is A Hoax," it screamed. "This the First Awakening. Follow your Curiosity, like Alice in the rabbit hole….Keep stepping forward. Share your discoveries. You will make new friends."
Mr. Potvin was among friends. 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."
He sipped his tea and consulted with some fellow Greens. Time to make his statement. Mr. Potvin led us outside, to an alleyway, and began to read aloud his latest musings about "the day of September 11."
"Like all victims of serious trauma and abuse, we have deep seated and conflicted feelings about it that linger to this day," read Mr. Potvin. "We need to put some of that fear, some of that horror, and some of that anxiety behind us."
He added to his original text, and "apologized." Not for the remarks that his party leader found so disgusting, but "for the way my essay has been characterized in the media … Some sentences, out of their context, may appear insensitive."
Mr. Potvin then invoked the deaths this week of eight Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan, and their families' grief. He asked for a few minutes of silence, and bowed his head.
And that was it. Having summoned the news media, Mr. Potvin flatly refused to answer any questions. Had he spoken to Ms. May? Had she asked him to make his statement? Did he still believe that the London subway bombings "were not cowardly, despicable and unspeakable acts," as he had written two years ago?
Mr. Potvin would not say. He tried to brush us off, and stormed back inside the coffee shop. "Constituents are waiting," he snapped.
We followed him. He sat down at his table. A CBC radio reporter approached, and pleaded for a comment.
Anything. "This meeting is about listening to constituents’ views about foreign policy," Mr. Potvin snapped again. And again. Leading a 9/11 discussion was no longer even on the agenda, apparently.
But 9/11 was all his crowd would talk about. Some of Mr. Potvin’s supporters turned on us. "Why does your newspaper avoid the truth?" yelled a woman with black and blue hair. "Bush was behind the attacks!"
She followed me out the door, continuing her harangue until I entered the sanctity, and relative sanity, of a different East Vancouver coffee shop.
With files from Katie Rook
PING!
“Islamic terrorists are “defending themselves against cultural genocide … Can you blame them?”
...
i’ll bet he’s a university grad, huh?
Ah, life is normal in the Soviet of East Van - my old neighbourhood! The delusional, and mercifully, factional lefty harebrains on The Drive are much like the worst of Seattle, San Francisco, or Portland.
This guy is just one of millions on the Left in the US, Canada, and Europe who feel the same way.
From Kevin Potvin, Green Party candidate and newest bedfellow of the Liberal Party.
'A little voice inside of him' is leading him to Hell. This guy is perfectly posessed and he has no clue.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
The current entry seems quite accurate
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_Potvin: Kevin Potvin (born 1962 in Port Arthur, Ontario) is a Canadian conspiracy nut and terrorist supporter.....
I’ll be fist pumpimng when this slime eats dirt!
The Greens are exceptionally fortunate to field such a qualified and competent candidate. I hope the guy can soon get US citizenship and run for national office on our Democrappers ticket. He fafithfully models democrappers thought and theory, and is up front with his gifts.
We need this man now. Go democrappers. On to victory with muddleheaded Potvin/Kucinich.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
You hit it with, “They con people into thinking they’re a bunch of moderates when the truth is they’re out and out radicals on a mission to subvert Western civilization.” No truth to the bastards, they can’t to be up front about their radicalism.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
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