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It has emerged that Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim accused a political opponent of distributing illegal drugs without evidence — weeks before a fellow councillor made similar claims that he later retracted.
Sim had praised Coun. Lenny Zhou, who is with Sim’s ABC Vancouver party, for apologizing and retracting comments he made last week about his political opponents in a video posted to social media platform WeChat.
But it turns out that Sim himself made similar comments earlier this month, during a press briefing, before Zhou’s comments accusing his opponents of being drug users were broadcast.
In the comments, Sim accuses COPE party Coun. Sean Orr of distributing illegal drugs on Christmas Day — something Orr has denied.
“You know, we have a councillor, Sean Orr, just this Christmas, who was handing out illegal drugs on Christmas Day to people on the streets,” Sim says in the media briefing on Feb. 6.
“So, if you like getting free illegal drugs, you probably don’t like me or ABC because we fight against that.”
The video briefing was provided to CBC News by CityNews/OMNI.
Vancouver Coun. Sean Orr tells On The Coast’s Gloria Macarenko that mayor Ken Sim and his ABC Party Coun. Lenny Zhou need to issue an apology over false claims that he and other council members distributed drugs. Orr says there should be repercussions because “they can’t say this and get away with it.”
In an interview with CBC’s On The Coast on Wednesday — before it emerged Sim had made similar comments to Zhou’s — Orr said he had never distributed drugs.
“The main point is that [Zhou] said several non-ABC councillors handed out drugs. It’s not true,” Orr said.
The COPE councillor added that he supported harm reduction efforts to deal with B.C.’s toxic drug crisis, but didn’t specifically mention handing out drugs as something he supports.
In a statement on Thursday, COPE said that Sim’s comments were a clear violation of the city’s code of conduct, and may constitute defamation.
“On Christmas Day, Sean Orr was visiting family for the holidays on the Sunshine Coast,” the municipal party said.
Orr says in the statement the job of a mayor “should be to bring people together, not divide people with disinformation and lies.”
A city councillor with Vancouver’s governing ABC Party is in hot water after claiming, without evidence, that opposition councillors were drug users and dealers. Coun. Lenny Zhou has since apologized and deleted that video. The CBC’s Municipal Affairs Reporter Justin McElroy details the situation.
After a regularly-scheduled city council meeting on Thursday, Sim left council chambers without addressing media, with a staffer telling CBC News that he was late to a board meeting.
Zhou also left council chambers after the meeting. CBC News has reached out to both Sim and Zhou for this story.
Orr has been among the most vocal critics of Sim and his ABC party since he was elected in a byelection last year.
Zhou’s claims
Zhou’s video with his claims on WeChat was taken down, after non-ABC councillors held a news conference where they said they would consider a code of conduct complaint.
The ABC councillor made the video in response to a then-upcoming motion from Vote Vancouver Coun. Rebecca Bligh on reversing Vancouver’s ban on new supportive housing units in the city.
Zhou was critical of the motion, saying supportive housing brings drugs and gangs to Vancouver, and asked the Chinese community to show up and oppose the motion.
“A few non-ABC councillors themselves are drug users,” he says in Mandarin, also claiming that they openly distributed drugs before Christmas, without specifying the councillors or the event in question.
Zhou later apologized for the video, saying his “comments were based on incorrect information.”
Sim has not yet issued a public statement after it emerged that he made similar comments to Zhou’s.
In a statement from the mayor’s office sent on Tuesday, he had praised Zhou for retracting the video.
“I want to thank [Coun.] Zhou for acknowledging his mistake and taking responsibility for sharing information that was not accurate,” Sim wrote in the statement.
