Calls for Vancouver mayor to apologize to Chinese-speaking communities over drug slur

VANCOUVER — Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim is facing calls to apologize to Chinese-speaking communities after he falsely accused a councillor of handing out illegal drugs.

While Sim told reporters last week he had apologized to Coun. Sean Orr, former NDP MLA Henry Yao says that’s not enough and Sim should apologize to the same group of Mandarin-speaking reporters and influencers who were present when he originally made the claim.

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

Yao says Sim should return to the group to issue an apology and retract his statement, and the mayor’s continued failure to do so seems like trying to “reap benefit from his mistake.”

Sim’s ABC Party colleague Coun. Lenny Zhou issued a statement in English last week apologizing for partially repeating the false claim, but he did not immediately share the apology on Chinese social media platform WeChat, where he mentioned the falsehood.

Coun. Rebecca Bligh says Sim needs to make a public written apology, which can be posted on WeChat and shared with the Mandarin-speaking community.

“In terms of the credibility and trust that the public has in Mayor Ken Sim, I expect that has been compromised, and he will need to do whatever work he can to restore that. And it won’t happen with just a simple apology to Coun. Orr,” said Bligh.

Yao said he has seen in previous provincial elections how language barriers could be exploited to spread misinformation, and now he worries about the integrity of the upcoming municipal election in October.

Sim has not explained where he received the false information about Orr, or why he shared it, instead telling reporters at an unrelated event last week that he had apologized to Orr, then repeating that statement several times when asked to elaborate.

Bligh said that making his apology public in this way was not sufficient.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 2, 2026.

Nono Shen, The Canadian Press