Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim and City Councillor Renee Zhou have apologized for making unfounded claims that opposition city councillors distributed illegal drugs.
Councillor Zhou, who belongs to the same ABC Vancouver Party as the mayor, posted a video on the Chinese-language social networking site (WeChat) in which he said that opposition councillors are “drug users” and “distributors of drugs.”
The four opposition councillors completely denied the remarks at a press conference. Councillor Zhou apologized on February 24, saying that his remarks were “based on incorrect information.” Mayor Shim had previously defended Councilman Cho and praised him for apologizing, but it was later revealed that he himself had made similar comments.
On February 6, Mayor Sim said in a CityNews/OMNI video that Councilman Sean Orr of the COPE Party was distributing illegal drugs to people on the street over Christmas. Councilman Orr denied the allegations. On February 27, Mayor Sim told reporters, “I spoke with Councilman Orr yesterday and apologized for my comments.” However, he did not mention the source of the fake information about Councilman Orr. Councillor Orr told CBC News he has never given away illegal drugs and called the mayor’s comments absurd and defamatory.
Vancouver currently has a majority of 10 city councillors, including Mayor Sim, with the ABC Vancouver Party representing six of the city’s 10 members. The opposition consists of four members: COPE’s Councillor Orr, OneCity Vancouver’s Councillor Lucy Maloney, Vancouver Green Party’s Councillor Pete Fry, and independent Councillor Rebecca Bligh.