User:Rogerb67/sandbox4

I'm concerned about the quality of some of the references on this article. I will discuss them here under 3 headings; those I consider are reliable, those which I believe are possibly unreliable, and those that I regard as certainly unreliable. Of course, this is my opinion; if disagreement arises and cannot easily be resolved, we can seek wider consensus.

First of all, a general comment. I note that most or all references appear to be links to material held on an internet account belonging to leopold, or belonging to Stephen Leopold's company, William B. May International. In order for the sources to be truly verifiable, they will need to be available at an independent source, such as a public library. Unless explicitly stated otherwise, the following discussion assumes this is possible and will be done.

Reliable
The following appear to be reliable sources per Wikipedia policy at WP:RS:


 * 1) http://74.52.227.18/~sleopold/pdf/MacleansDec1973Watergate.pdf - article in Macleans. This discusses Leopold's involvement in the Watergate investigation.
 * 2) http://74.52.227.18/~sleopold/pdf/MulroneyBook.pdf - quotation from . A single sentence; not "significant coverage", nor verifying that Leopold was "Executive Assistant", but "friend and aide".
 * 3) http://74.52.227.18/~sleopold/pdf/articles/SA_boycott.pdf - "the Gazette" Feb 3 1987. Solid source if a little short and only partly about one of Leopold's businesses. Straddles business and politics. Rather too brief to establish real notability in business by itself.
 * 4) http://www.feri.org/common/news/reports/detail.cfm?QID=6315&ClientID=11005&topicID=513&classification=report - The Franklin & Eleanor Roosevelt Institute - Board of Directors self-published and extremely short mention of Leopold but I think it's reasonable to demonstrate Leopold holds this position.

Possibly unreliable
"most reliable" first (roughly):


 * 1) http://74.52.227.18/~sleopold/pdf/PDF/Montreal%20Calendar%20Magazine%20-%20Leopold.pdf - in "Montreal Calendar Magazine", October 1984. More substantial coverage of Leopold's business in commercial real estate. Main issue here is the reliability of the publication on business matters; I'm not familiar with it and there's not much on the Web about it, which means little with a publication date of 1984. What's needed here is some independent evidence of this publication's reliability on business-related matters.
 * 2) http://74.52.227.18/~sleopold/pdf/articles/Vista%20June%201989.pdf - "Vista" June 1989. Can't find much about this one either; all the cover stories appear to be about business, which really precludes it being this Vista. Having read the piece more carefully, it looks better than I first thought. Do you have more details on this publication, particularly its editorial standards?
 * 3)  - generally an acceptable WP:primary source. The fact that this is a biography of a living person makes use of such sources more problematic however. I don't have access to this work, so I don't know if coverage of Leopold could be termed "significant", but I have no reason to doubt the quote, nor that it mentions Leopold's involvement in his leadership election campaign.
 * 4) http://74.52.227.18/~sleopold/pdf/PDF/Office%20Leasing%20Expert.pdf - in "The Gazette", Montreal, March 21 1985, apparently reliable publication however it appears to be an uncritical reporting of Leopold's words, apart from calling him an "office leasing expert". Appears to me to be a nexample of "Primary sources that have been reliably published" per WP:PRIMARY, which limits its usefulness in determining notability and for topics covered by WP:BLP.
 * 5) http://www.wbmayre.com/PDF/Espace%20Magazine.pdf - Looks like a trade magazine covering Montreal real estate; reading the article and given Leopold's operation is now in New York, I seriously wonder about how reliable this is. Also, how verifiable is this? Would it be held in a public library somewhere for example?
 * 6) http://74.52.227.18/~sleopold/pdf/Espace%20Magazine.pdf - appears to be a different URL to the article above.

Definitely unreliable

 * 1) http://www.rbccm.com/0,,cid-23057_,00.html - RBC Capital markets website. Considered a self-published source by Wikipedia and therefore limited in its usefulness. Does not appear to mention Leopold or other details in the article beyond the existence of this firm (which it doesn't reliably establish), and would not be considered reliable if it did, so useless for verifying this article. Could be considered an unsuitable external link per WP:ELNO.
 * 2) http://www.standardlife.ca/realestategroup/en/listing/quebec/mtl_1001mais.html - Standard Life Real Estate Group website. Considered a self-published source by Wikipedia. Does not appear to mention Leopold or other details, and would not be considered reliable if it did, so useless for verifying this article. Could be considered an unsuitable external link per WP:ELNO.
 * 3) http://www.mccord-museum.qc.ca/en/info/pressreleases/119e.html - McCord Museum, same story as above except less overtly commercial, so less likely to fall foul of WP:ELNO
 * 4) http://www.cerclecanadien-montreal.ca/en/history/ - Considered a self-published source by Wikipedia. Does not appear to mention Leopold or other details.