‘How can you do this’: Vancouver councillor rejects Mayor Sim’s apology for drug slur

VANCOUVER – Vancouver City Coun. Sean Orr has rejected an apology from Mayor Ken Sim for falsely accusing him of distributing illegal drugs.

Orr said he got the apology in a phone call from Sim on Thursday — but there was no explanation where Sim got the idea in the first place.

“I told him, politics aside, how can you do this to another person?” said Orr on Friday.

“And who is he getting this information from? Is this like a co-ordinated sort of campaign to attack me and discredit me for political gain?”

On Feb. 6, Sim had falsely accused Orr of “handing out illegal drugs on Christmas Day to people on the streets,” in a briefing for Chinese-speaking reporters. 

But the accusation did not receive wide attention until Sim’s ABC Party colleague Coun. Lenny Zhou partially repeated it last week on Chinese social media platform WeChat, saying in Mandarin that non-ABC councillors were drug users and distributors.

Orr categorically denied the claim and said he was visiting family on the Sunshine Coast on Christmas Day. He says he rejected Sim’s apology because the damage had already been done.

He said he wanted to build bridges with Chinese-speaking communities, but Sim’s comments had driven a wedge between them and made it difficult to do his job.

“Now everyone is thinking one thing about me, and even though it’s not true, I didn’t do those things. It’s out there now,” he said.

Orr said he wanted conversations with the Chinese-speaking community about supportive housing and harm reduction. The language barrier added a layer of difficulty that was now exacerbated by Sim’s false claims, he said.

Sim told a group of reporters on Friday that he had apologized to Orr, and a spokesman said in a statement that Sim would not be elaborating.

Zhou said Tuesday in an English-language statement that he was “unequivocally” apologizing for sharing the “incorrect information” in his WeChat post.

While he deleted the post, he did not immediately apologize on the Chinese platform.

Sim had praised Zhou for his apology — but did not acknowledge at the time that he was the source of the false accusation.

Orr, a socialist who was the top vote getter in a 2025 council by-election, said other councillors from Sim’s right-leaning ABC Party had “expressed regret” to him over the false allegation.

“I think everyone is kind of shocked by it, ” said Orr. 

Green Coun. Pete Fry said Sim’s accusation was “mean,” but the outcome was a “vindication.” 

“Because this is exactly how the mayor has been bullying us for quite some time,” he said.

A video of Sim making the remarks allowed “Vancouverites to be able to see exactly what kind of person the mayor really is,” Fry said.

He said that in closed-door meetings with the mayor, when no cameras were present, there had been “some very ugly interactions.”

Fry said Sim had also disrespected the Chinese community.

“It is s a horrible example and a horrible way to treat constituents,” said Fry. 

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 27, 2026.