By The Canadian Press

Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim started false rumour councillor ‘handed out illegal drugs’

Feb 26, 2026 | 3:35 PM

VANCOUVER — Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim accused city Coun. Sean Orr of “handing out illegal drugs on Christmas Day” in a briefing for Chinese-speaking reporters earlier this month, in a false assertion that was partially repeated and then retracted with an apology by a Sim ally.

Sim on Tuesday had applauded Coun. Lenny Zhou for “acknowledging his mistake” and retracting elements of the claim that his ABC Party colleague shared on Chinese social media platform WeChat last week — but Sim did not reveal that it was he who originally made the claim in the Feb. 6 briefing at City Hall.

Orr said in an interview Thursday that he was unaware of the mayor’s comments until The Canadian Press played a recording of the meeting.

“I’m absolutely shocked and appalled. I wasn’t in Vancouver on Christmas Day. I certainly wasn’t handing out free drugs. I’ve never handed out free drugs. I don’t know where this is coming from. It’s blatant disinformation,” Orr said.

Sim had told attendees at the briefing about three weeks ago that the city was dealing with an opioid crisis before launching into the false anecdote about Orr.

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“If — you know, we have a councillor, Sean Orr, just this Christmas, who was handing out illegal drugs on Christmas Day to people on the streets,” Sim said.

“So, if you like getting free illegal drugs, you probably don’t like me or ABC because we fight against that.”

Orr said the mayor had accepted Zhou’s apology, and “he really threw Lenny under the bus, and now it turns out it came from him, which is shocking.”

“This is deliberately trying to mislead a very vulnerable population in the Chinese community that is fearful in many ways of this kind of issue,” Orr said.

“I think he needs to immediately apologize at the very least. He needs to apologize to the Chinese-speaking community.”

Orr said he was “stunned” to find out Sim was behind the claim and he did not know where the idea came from.

He was weighing his options about whether to seek legal counsel while consulting with his team.

Sim’s press secretary, Taylor Verrall, asked for a copy of the recording when contacted for comment Wednesday. He did not immediately respond after it was sent.

On Tuesday, after Zhou said he was “unequivocally” apologizing for sharing incorrect information that councillors had been giving out drugs, Sim had thanked Zhou for “taking responsibility for sharing information that was not accurate.”

— With files by Nono Shen

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 26, 2026.

Darryl Greer, The Canadian Press