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Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim has apologized for claiming, without evidence, that his fellow council member Sean Orr distributed illegal drugs.
“I spoke with Coun. Orr yesterday, and I apologize for my comments,” Sim said in a media scrum at an unrelated news conference on Friday.
Sim refused to answer more specific questions from reporters and instead responded with the same statement more than a dozen times.
The mayor had previously praised Coun. Lenny Zhou, who is part of Sim’s ABC Vancouver party, for apologizing and retracting comments about opposition councillors in a video posted on the social media platform WeChat.
But Sim himself made similar remarks at a media briefing for Chinese-speaking reporters earlier this month, before Zhou posted the video.
Sim said on Feb. 6: “We have a councillor, Sean Orr, just this Christmas, who was handing out illegal drugs on Christmas Day to people on the streets.”
The video briefing was provided to CBC News by CityNews/OMNI.
Orr has denied this allegation “unequivocally.”
Sim did not answer questions Friday about where the information he spoke about came from or whether it was irresponsible as a leader to repeat the comments without fact-checking.
“As a leader, I, you know, called Sean Orr, or Coun. Orr, and I apologized for my comments,” he said.
He did not address the Chinese community directly and said he does not distinguish between media of different languages.
“I think the media is here today, and I’m telling everyone that I spoke with Coun. Orr, and I apologize for my comments.”
Orr, a COPE city councillor, told CBC’s The Early Edition on Friday that he has never handed out free illegal drugs.
He acknowledged that Sim had called him to apologize and added Sim said he had false information.
“I said, ‘Well, what do you mean? Who are you getting your advice from? Twitter bots?’ I mean, it doesn’t make any sense,” Orr said.
Video has surfaced that shows Mayor Ken Sim accusing COPE Coun. Sean Orr of distributing illegal drugs on Christmas Day — something Orr strongly denies, saying he wasn’t in Vancouver on Christmas Day and has never distributed drugs. Orr told the The Early Edition the allegation “hurts democracy and hurts Vancouver.”
Orr said the comments were ridiculous and defamatory.
The COPE councillor, who has long supported harm reduction, said he does support a safe supply, similar to how alcohol is regulated.
Orr said some ABC councillors have reached out to him and he encouraged them to publicly denounce what the mayor said.
“They’re upset too,” Orr said.
Zhou’s comment on social media was not specifically directed at Orr, but rather at non-ABC party councillors.
Green Party of Vancouver Coun. Pete Fry said he was “absolutely livid” to hear that Sim had also made the remarks.
“I am so angry with this mayor. It is absolutely unconscionable for him to, with such brazen and undeserved confidence, to claim that about our council colleague.”
Fry said Sim had “betrayed the code of conduct [and] every aspect of good governance.”
Orr said residents want to see “a functioning city council.”
“They want to see us getting along. They want to see us making decisions that are best for Vancouver. And a mayor brings people together, doesn’t divide people.”
