Vancouver council votes against sanctioning Mayor Ken Sim after harassment finding

VANCOUVER — Vancouver’s city council has voted not to sanction Mayor Ken Sim after he was found to have misused the influence of his office and harassed a councillor.

All six of Sim’s ABC party members voted on Tuesday against acting on the findings of the Integrity Commissioner’s investigation into Sim’s actions against Councillor Sean Orr.

The other four councillors, including Orr, voted for sanctioning Sim, while the mayor did not vote after declaring a conflict in the matter.

The investigator’s report released in May centred on a news conference by Sim at City Hall in April 2025 and a social media post by the mayor later that year, which represented Orr as antisemitic.

The report found Sim’s criticisms violated the council’s code of conduct as they were akin to a personal call-out of Orr rather than protecting Vancouver’s Jewish community.

The investigator, Jamie Pytel, recommended that council to ask Sim to apologize, or to consider possible sanctions, but Sim said he disagreed with the findings and his comments were part of his duties to “stand shoulder-to-shoulder” with the Jewish community.

Sim is being sued for defamation by Orr over a different news conference at City Hall in which he falsely claimed Orr had handed out drugs on Christmas Day.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 3, 2026.

The Canadian Press