{"id":512630,"date":"2026-03-04T00:12:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-04T00:12:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/512630\/"},"modified":"2026-03-04T00:12:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T00:12:08","slug":"vancouver-mayor-apologizes-accusing-coun-of-handing-out-drugs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/512630\/","title":{"rendered":"Vancouver mayor apologizes accusing coun. of handing out drugs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim has publicly apologized after he alleged that an opposition city councillor publicly handed out illegal drugs.<\/p>\n

Sim made the accusations against COPE Councillor Sean Orr in a briefing for Chinese-language reporters in the city in early February.<\/a> He suggested the alleged behaviour had occurred on Christmas Day.<\/p>\n

Orr has denied the allegations, telling reporters he was not even in Vancouver on the date in question.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy comments were wrong,\u201d Sim said in front of reporters on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I do want to be very clear that was my mistake.\u201d<\/p>\n

He says that he apologized to Orr directly last week and wanted to extend that apology to residents, city staff, and council colleagues.<\/p>\n

Sim also admitted that he did not verify an image he had seen that made him believe Orr was handing out drugs.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can tell you this has been a great learning experience for me,\u201d Sim said.<\/p>\n

\u201cTwo things I\u2019ve learned here are one, making sure if photos like this come up, there\u2019s a higher standard that must be met before you make comments. And I own that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The second thing Sim learned, he said, is about making mistakes.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople make mistakes. Leaders make mistakes. I think that\u2019s just a fact of life. However, how you deal with those mistakes after you make them, I\u2019m here to today to own up to that mistake that I made and unreservedly apologize for it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Tuesday press conference was the second time Sim directly responded to reporters\u2019 questions on the matter.<\/p>\n

Last Friday, Sim held an unrelated media availability<\/a>, but answered all questions on the situation with the same words: \u201cI called Sean Orr, or Coun. Orr, and I apologized for my comments.\u201d<\/p>\n

Orr had said last week that he was not ready to accept Sim\u2019s apology.<\/p>\n

Orr responded to Sim\u2019s apology<\/p>\n

Shortly after Sim\u2019s press conference, Orr answered questions from the media at Vancouver City Hall, in which he said that Sim\u2019s apology must be followed by actions aiming at rebuilding trust.<\/p>\n

He calls the images in question \u201cvile, disgusting images\u201d and criticized the mayor\u2019s office for hiring people who follow social media accounts that share such images.<\/p>\n

According to Orr, he has identified one account that shared the image.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt got banned. It was called Vancity News 1,\u201d Orr said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is an active police file about this account, which has made death threats against me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"COPEVancouver City Councillor Sean Orr (COPE) speaks at Vancouver City Hall on Tuesday March 3, 2026. (CityNews Image)<\/p>\n

He says that the images could spread that far speaks to a \u201ctoxic media in general\u201d and thinks the development is concerning beyond its implications in Vancouver.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt just feels like a big coordinated sort of attack. And we are seeing that across the board. We are seeing that play out across the continent in terms of these very, very organized, all far-right sort of accounts that are really sort of driving the agendas here,\u201d Orr told reporters.<\/p>\n

He says that voters care about this incident, and he has never seen anything like this.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t think of a time where a mayor just came out and lied about another colleague.\u201d<\/p>\n

He says he asked Mayor Sim where he got the image or the information from, but did not receive a response during their private conversation.<\/p>\n

Orr also says that he is still considering pursuing legal action in this matter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim has publicly apologized after he alleged that an opposition city councillor publicly handed out…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":512631,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194298],"tags":[49,48,55],"class_list":["post-512630","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-vancouver","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-vancouver"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/512630","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=512630"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/512630\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/512631"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=512630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=512630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=512630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}