Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Pam Provis

The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.

The result of the debate was delete as hoax. — FREAK OF NUR_xTURE (TALK) 11:22, Dec. 27, 2005

[edit] Pam Provis

Appears to be primarily nonsense. While the two external links do indeed go to things written by someone of this name, most of the rest appears to be false. I can't find any proof that Iqaluit State University exists, that Provis wrote a paper called Latin Americans in Canada: A Chance to Develop the North (supposedly about Mexicans living in the far north of Canada), that it was later the basis for a government study, that there's a company called Provis and Sons Drilling Ltd, and so forth. I suspect someone has invented a fictional biography, borrowing the name to give it a sense of credibility. Vardion 01:04, 17 December 2005 (UTC)

• Delete as a hoax. Alr 01:06, 17 December 2005 (UTC)
• Delete as hoax. Durova 01:17, 17 December 2005 (UTC)
• Delete. All I can find on this woman is a comment she made to a BBC website. [1]
• Keep. I was a colleague of Provis' at Carleton University. The article seems to have a few minor inaccuracies, but is not a fictional biography. I'll try to get in contact with Provis to fix the errors. Jruta 07:25, 17 December 2005 (UTC)
• Delete per nom. Iqaluit is a city, not a state. It's also in Canada which doesn't have states but provinces and territories. The section on unpaid library fines seem to point to an inside joke. Ifnord 15:33, 17 December 2005 (UTC)
• Keep.I was just told about this from a friend who works with Pam through the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development. I am not sure why this would be deleted. Besides two factual errors such as the Iqualuit State, should be Iqualuit City University. Besides that the only other error is that Provis and Sons Drilling Ltd was sold a few years back to Petro Canada. Ms. Provis’ work have been extremely important and influentional inside the department as well as in the Northern Development academic community.Powerinputreset 17 December 2005 (UTC)

I can't find a single mention of "Iqualuit City University", either — or indeed, any organisation which has both "Iqualuit" and "University" in its name. And even if "Provis and Sons" was sold "a few years back", there should still be mention of it somewhere. It certainly isn't mentioned in Petro Canada's historical overview, which mentions all manner of other aquisitions. And you'd think that someone who had been "extremely important and influentional" in an academic field would be referenced somewhere on the internet in relation to that field, but she isn't. Given that both Keep votes here have been made by new users with no contributions anywhere else, I'd consider it probable that they're both the hoaxer in disguise. (And anyway - even if all this content is all true, it hasn't meet the criteria of Wikipedia:Verifiability, so should be removed unless reputable sources can be found.) -- Vardion 23:40, 17 December 2005 (UTC)

From what I understand, Iqualuit City University is not a separate institution. It is subunit of Nunavut Arctic College in which is in its first year of operation and is able to grant degrees through Brandon University. On the issue of the Petro Canada sale, Ill be honest I don’t know much about her husbands business, I just knows Pam Provis. Pam is in fact going to be presenting a paper at this years Aboriginal Policy Research Conference in which she is the keynote presenter. She has published multiple articles in the Journal of Indigenous Development and the International Migrant Development Journal.Powerinputreset 17 December 2005 (UTC)

Odd, then, that the Nunavut Arctic College's website doesn't mention it. The Brandon University website doesn't mention any connection, either. (Someone has since changed the article to refer to the University of the Arctic, an institution in Finland — but their website doesn't mention Inqalit either). As for the journals — I can't find any evidence that either of them exist. (There's one reference to something called the World Journal of Indigenous Development, which was planned to be launched in Australia at the beginning of this year, but no subsequent mention of it.) Nor can I find anything connecting this "keynote speaker" to the Aboriginal Policy Research Conference, either at the next conference (not "this year", but in 2006) or the last conference (2002). (And this is still ignoring all the other problems, such as any mention of her supposed "bestseller" about Latin Americans in the Arctic.) -- Vardion 01:35, 18 December 2005 (UTC)

Well as I stated it’s a first year project so it might not be one their website yet. As to both those journals, since I am the editor of International Migrant Development Journal can tell you that exists. Pam is in fact going to have another article published in our first issue of the 2006, “Conclave Electoral Process: A Concept for the Inuit”. Powerinputreset 17 December 2005 (UTC)

I still can't find any evidence whatsoever that this journal exists. Perhaps, since you say you edit it, you could point us to some? -- Vardion 02:47, 20 December 2005 (UTC)

University of the Arctic is an umbrella institution that links small, unknown institutions and allows University education in the North. Don't forget, in the Arctic, some campus' insitutions might only be temporary or count in the 10s of people, due to small populations. So the University of the Arctic comment shouldn't be used as leverage against this person's article.Lewis Murphy 23:34, 18 December 2005 (UTC)

• Delete. Unsourced, and with the unsupported 'Controversy' section it verges on an attack page. --Last Malthusian 12:43, 18 December 2005 (UTC)

• Comment Well, she seems to exist, but she also seems to be the very definition of an 'average academic', and we generally delete those. --Last Malthusian 09:06, 19 December 2005 (UTC)

• Keep. There are some sources. I think maybe the article needs to have more sources but fully deleting it is hurting the broad content of Wikipedia from smaller regions like the north. --Ahsan, pronounced "Essen" 23:39, 18 December 2005 (UTC)
• Delete I also say delete, there is a few major factual errors which makes this unworthy of wikipedia. Firstly, here thesis was not titled Latin Americans in Canada: A Chance to Develop the North but in fact called Inuit and Mexicans: Development Opportunities in Nunavut. Secondly her husband is not a oil barron, he is a senior partner in a diamond drilling company Cumberland Resources Ltd. Although the library fines issue is actually extremely accurate, her PHD and MA degrees have been called into question.Lenwilkens 18 December 2005 (UTC)

Can't find any evidence of "Inuit and Mexicans: Development Opportunities in Nunavut", either. Nor can I find any evidence of a "Mr. Provis" having anything to do with Cumberland Resources. -- Vardion 02:47, 20 December 2005 (UTC)

• Delete. Unverified and obviously a hoax. And sockpuppets ahoy! Of the above voters:
  • Jruta - 3 edits total, all on this page.
  • Powerinputreset - 8 edits total, all but 2 to this page: one of the remaining to Pam Provis and the other to upload the picture in the article.
  • Lewis Murphy - 1 edit, to this page.
  • Ahsan, pronounced "Essen" - 1 edit, to this page.
  • Lenwilkens - 3 edits total, all on this page.

--Calton | Talk 02:04, 19 December 2005 (UTC)

• Keep. I can't imagine that every article is perfect from the time it is written. Through the help of several users here, the article appears to be much more credible and is worth keeping. Sully 19 December 2005 (UTC)

But how is the new information any more credible than the old? No evidence whatsoever exists for either — we know that this person exists, but that's about all. (And all the "new users" who suddenly appeared to provide the revised claims could easily just be different incarnations of the original author, anyway.) Even if most of the article happens to be true (highly doubtful), we still need proof of that — and none has been given. -- Vardion 02:47, 20 December 2005 (UTC)

• Comment Amusing that Ms Provis is described as "a frequent commentator for the BBC on regional issues" on the strength of a comment from her on the bottom of a BBC article. Those comments are basically 'reader mail', of a slightly lower order of notability than getting a letter printed in The Times, and to describe her as a 'frequent commentator' is nonsense. (Interestingly, the quote is taken completely out of context in the 'Controversy' section. Either there are indeed several different associates of Ms Provis writing this, or one schizophrenic.) --Last Malthusian 09:29, 20 December 2005 (UTC)
• Delete This is a clear hoax. Besides the above criticisms, the article claims Ms.Provis is an academic at 2 universities and an "important theorist regarding bicameralism in the subnational Canadian context". Then the article points you to a BBC article which Ms.Provis submitted a comment for, in which she states that she is "studying development policy in university". A professor who is at the "forefront" of her specific field would not claim to be studying general development policy when giving their opinion.Spanky 21 December 2005 (UTC)
• Delete as hoax. Adunar 05:47, 22 December 2005 (UTC)
• Delete as unverified and probable hoax. So many supporters should have been able to come up with some hard evidence if this were real. -- JimR 05:53, 22 December 2005 (UTC)
• Delete, non-notable or another childish hoax. --King of All the Franks 19:01, 23 December 2005 (UTC)

The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.