{"id":670840,"date":"2026-05-15T09:04:20","date_gmt":"2026-05-15T09:04:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/670840\/"},"modified":"2026-05-15T09:04:20","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T09:04:20","slug":"report-finds-vancouver-mayor-ken-sim-misused-influence-harassed-councillor-sean-orr-bc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/670840\/","title":{"rendered":"Report finds Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim misused influence, harassed councillor Sean Orr – BC"},"content":{"rendered":"

An investigator has found that\u00a0Vancouver\u00a0Mayor\u00a0Ken\u00a0Sim\u00a0\u201cmisused\u00a0the\u00a0influence\u00a0of his office\u201d and\u00a0harassed\u00a0a\u00a0councillor\u00a0in violation of the council\u2019s code of conduct.<\/p>\n

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The\u00a0report\u00a0dated 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.\u00a0Sean\u00a0Orr\u00a0in October 2025.<\/p>\n

Orr\u2019s complaint was about a news conference held by\u00a0Sim\u00a0at\u00a0Vancouver\u00a0City Hall in April 2025, as well as a social media post made by the\u00a0mayor\u00a0later that year that represented\u00a0Orr\u00a0as antisemitic.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0report\u00a0released Thursday\u00a0finds\u00a0that Sim\u2019s criticism of\u00a0Orr\u00a0at the news conference was \u201cmore a personal calling out\u201d of the\u00a0councillor, rather than trying to protect the Jewish community against hate crimes.<\/p>\n

The friction between\u00a0Sim\u00a0and\u00a0Orr\u00a0continued and in March\u00a0Orr\u00a0launched a lawsuit against the\u00a0mayor\u00a0for false comments to Chinese-language reporters about the\u00a0councillor\u00a0handing out drugs on Christmas Day.<\/p>\n

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Sim\u00a0has apologized for those comments, saying he saw an unverified photo, and said in his legal defence that the false claim did not damage Orr\u2019s reputation.<\/p>\n

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The\u00a0report\u00a0says that Sim\u2019s comments on social media about\u00a0Orr\u00a0last year were a continuation of the harassment after the news conference, in violation of the code of conduct.<\/p>\n

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Pytel is recommending a request for the\u00a0mayor\u00a0to apologize or for possible other sanctions against him.<\/p>\n

\u201cHolding the press conference was not part of\u00a0Mayor\u00a0Sim\u2019s duties,\u201d the investigator says. \u201cUsing the\u00a0influence\u00a0of his office to personally attack Coun.\u00a0Orr\u00a0was a misuse of the\u00a0influence\u00a0of his office.\u201d<\/p>\n

There is sufficient information that\u00a0Sim\u00a0objectively\u00a0harassed\u00a0Orr\u00a0at the April 8, 2025, news conference when he personally attacked the\u00a0councillor\u00a0by suggesting he was antisemitic or would incite violence or hatred, the\u00a0report\u00a0says.<\/p>\n

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Sim\u00a0referred to social media posts\u00a0Orr\u00a0made years before he was elected, and said that as the\u00a0mayor\u00a0he had a duty to ensure as a city that \u201cwe are not divided by rhetoric or hate,\u201d the\u00a0report\u00a0says.<\/p>\n

In a statement,\u00a0Sim\u00a0says he has seen the\u00a0report\u00a0and \u201crespectfully\u201d disagrees with the conclusions.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy comments were made against the backdrop of a wave of rising antisemitism and hate across Canada,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll 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\u00a0mayor\u00a0to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the Jewish residents of\u00a0Vancouver.\u201d<\/p>\n

The\u00a0report\u00a0says\u00a0Sim\u00a0told the investigator that the concerns he raised about Orr\u2019s comments \u201cwere not his interpretations \u2026 but were the Jewish community\u2019s interpretations.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The investigator found that contradicted with what the\u00a0mayor\u00a0said during the news conference, including that Orr\u2019s social media posts \u201chit him to his core.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sam Smart, co-chair of the COPE party that\u00a0Orr\u00a0represents on\u00a0Vancouver\u00a0council, says in a statement that Sim\u2019s behaviour \u201cis part of a pattern of harmful and personally targeted conduct\u201d against the\u00a0councillor, and it needs to stop.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t&copy 2026 The Canadian Press\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An investigator has found that\u00a0Vancouver\u00a0Mayor\u00a0Ken\u00a0Sim\u00a0\u201cmisused\u00a0the\u00a0influence\u00a0of his office\u201d and\u00a0harassed\u00a0a\u00a0councillor\u00a0in violation of the council\u2019s code of conduct. The\u00a0report\u00a0dated Monday was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":670841,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[49,48,47027,204074,44,714,204073],"class_list":["post-670840","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-code-of-conduct","tag-ken-sim","tag-news","tag-politics","tag-sean-orr"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670840","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=670840"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670840\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/670841"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=670840"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=670840"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=670840"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}