Report finds Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim misused influence, harassed councillor Sean Orr

VANCOUVER – An investigator has found that Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim “misused the influence of his office” and harassed a councillor in violation of the council’s code of conduct.

The report dated Monday was based on an investigation by Jamie Pytel of Kingsgate Legal, who was retained by the city to look into the complaint made by Coun. Sean Orr in October 2025.

Orr’s complaint was about a news conference held by Sim at Vancouver City Hall in April 2025, as well as a social media post made by the mayor later that year that represented Orr as antisemitic. 

The report released Thursday finds that Sim’s criticism of Orr at the news conference was “more a personal calling out” of the councillor, rather than trying to protect the Jewish community against hate crimes. 

The friction between Sim and Orr continued and in March Orr launched a lawsuit against the mayor for false comments to Chinese-language reporters about the councillor handing out drugs on Christmas Day.

Sim has apologized for those comments, saying he saw an unverified photo, and said in his legal defence that the false claim did not damage Orr’s reputation.

The report says that Sim’s comments on social media about Orr last year were a continuation of the harassment after the news conference, in violation of the code of conduct.

Pytel is recommending a request for the mayor to apologize or for possible other sanctions against him. 

“Holding the press conference was not part of Mayor Sim’s duties,” the investigator says. “Using the influence of his office to personally attack Coun. Orr was a misuse of the influence of his office.”

There is sufficient information that Sim objectively harassed Orr at the April 8, 2025, news conference when he personally attacked the councillor by suggesting he was antisemitic or would incite violence or hatred, the report says. 

Sim referred to social media posts Orr made years before he was elected, and said that as the mayor he had a duty to ensure as a city that “we are not divided by rhetoric or hate,” the report says. 

In a statement, Sim says he has seen the report and “respectfully” disagrees with the conclusions.

“My comments were made against the backdrop of a wave of rising antisemitism and hate across Canada,” he says.

“All elected officials have a responsibility to speak out when a segment of our city feels targeted and unsafe. I reject the claim that it was not my duty as mayor to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the Jewish residents of Vancouver.”

The report says Sim told the investigator that the concerns he raised about Orr’s comments “were not his interpretations … but were the Jewish community’s interpretations.”

The investigator found that contradicted with what the mayor said during the news conference, including that Orr’s social media posts “hit him to his core.”

Ezra Shanken, the CEO of the Jewish Federation of B.C., said in a statement that the report shows an apparent double standard after it complained about Orr to Vancouver’s integrity commissioner but its complaint was dismissed. 

“This is why we are grateful to Mayor Ken Sim for raising our community’s concerns about Orr’s social media posts and conduct,” Shanken said in a statement. 

Sam Smart, co-chair of the COPE party that Orr represents on Vancouver council, says in a statement that Sim’s behaviour “is part of a pattern of harmful and personally targeted conduct” against the councillor, and it needs to stop.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 14, 2026.