ABC Councillor Accuses Colleagues of Drug Crimes

In a five-minute video posted to WeChat on the weekend, Vancouver Coun. Lenny Zhou accused at least one councillor outside of his ABC Vancouver party of being a drug user and drug dealer.

Zhou addressed the audience in Mandarin, asking for his supporters to come to a council meeting today to oppose a motion on social housing scheduled to be heard by the city’s policy and governance standing committee.

The motion, introduced by Vote Vancouver Coun. Rebecca Bligh, who was kicked out of the ABC caucus last year and sits as an independent, would build “drug houses” for “drug users,” Zhou said.

In a translation of the video commissioned by The Tyee, Zhou then said:

“I can also tell everybody that the non-ABC councillor is themself a drug user. Before Christmas, they openly dispensed drugs on the streets.”

Zhou does not name the specific councillor, and The Tyee’s translator noted that it is unclear whether Zhou is referring to one or multiple councillors.

In a hastily called press conference at city hall Tuesday afternoon, Bligh, along with OneCity Coun. Lucy Maloney, Green Party Coun. Pete Fry and COPE Coun. Sean Orr, called on Mayor Ken Sim to denounce the attacks and what they said was a misrepresentation of the proposed city policy in Zhou’s video.

“This video has now been shared thousands of times online. That scale matters. When statements like this spread widely, they shape how people understand city policy and how they view elected officials,” said Bligh, who alleged Zhou labelled her an “extremist” in the video for her motion calling for a staff report on the impact of Vancouver pausing all new social housing projects.

“We can disagree on supportive housing. We can advocate for a different approach to public safety. This is legitimate political debate,” Bligh said. “But personal allegations and inflammatory characterizations moves us away from debate and toward division.”

Bligh noted councillors take oaths of office “to be truthful and uphold the public trust” and are held to a code of conduct.

But this is not the first time non-ABC councillors have questioned the party’s ability to adhere to these promises, she said.

“Over the past year we have raised concerns over how those standards are being upheld. We have seen the governing party sidestep or weaken accountability mechanisms that exist to protect public confidence. Councillors Fry, Orr, Maloney and I are seeing the same pattern: this video is notable because we are watching it unfold in real time,” Bligh said.

“Mayor Sim sets the tone for his caucus. He should state clearly that personal allegations against colleagues are unacceptable. He should reaffirm that public debate must be grounded in responsible representations of policy.”

Fry, who lives in the Strathcona neighbourhood, noted many of his neighbours are of Chinese descent and he is concerned about their perception of him and his family because of the video.

“These are malicious falsehoods that are quite egregious,” Fry said. “There is a very real and likely possibility that this could, if proven, constitute defamatory libel and it is very serious.”

The councillors told the media they will pursue their complaint through internal channels including a code-of-conduct complaint, before they consider taking legal action against Zhou.

Orr, who has a long history of community advocacy for people living in poverty and with addictions, noted Zhou’s video makes having conversations about harm reduction and affordable housing policy even more difficult.

“It really rivals what we were seeing in the ’80s around moral panics,” he said. “This is a moralization of a health issue.”

None of the councillors speak Mandarin, telling media they had the video translated by four different people: one person affiliated with the Greens, two people associated with OneCity and one person with no party affiliation.

Mike Tan, a Chinatown social housing advocate who is running for the OneCity council nomination in the October municipal election, confirmed for The Tyee that Zhou called his fellow councillors drug users and claimed they were “openly distributing or promoting the use of drugs on the streets.”

“That’s very dirty. I don’t know how else to describe it other than it’s outright lying or misleading,” said Tan, who is not a native Mandarin speaker but checked the translation with several native speakers.

Zhou used the video to call on people to speak to council against Bligh’s motion, Tan told The Tyee.

“Lenny is supposed to be a trusted source of information,” Tan said of Zhou.

“It is outright misleading and lying to Chinese-speaking Vancouverites, when the Chinese community really agrees on getting homeless folks off the streets, getting folks treatment — whether it’s for drug addiction or for mental health — with an eye on public safety.”

Nearly four hours after Fry, Maloney, Bligh and Orr’s press conference, Zhou issued a written public statement apologizing for the remarks he made about the councillors in the video that were “based on incorrect information.”

“I am retracting my statement, and I’ve taken down the video. I fully support the pause of net new supportive housing, and I do believe that there are significant issues around how many facilities operate,” his statement reads.

“There are members of council who have made it clear that they support the province’s model of supportive housing and the liberalization of drug use in our city. Those are positions that I fundamentally disagree with.

“I am proud to be a passionate advocate for engaging my community in civic dialogue. I will continue to fight for Vancouverites but in this case, I did not live up to the standards that I strive for.”

Sim declined to comment on the video when he passed reporters on his way into an in-camera council meeting Tuesday afternoon.

But in a statement emailed to The Tyee, Sim thanked Zhou for “acknowledging his mistake and taking responsibility for sharing information that was not accurate.”

“Councillor Zhou has always been a passionate advocate for Vancouver’s Chinese community. He works hard to ensure residents, especially seniors and families who rely on in-language updates, understand what’s happening at City Hall and how it affects them,” Sim’s statement reads.

This is not the first time Vancouver politicians have spread misinformation to community members who speak a Chinese language.

In 2011, Non-Partisan Association school trustees Ken Denike and Sophia Woo were criticized for appearing in a video in Cantonese and English where they spread misinformation about the Vancouver School Board’s proposed updates to their sexual orientation and gender identity policy.

The Non-Partisan Association later expelled both Denike and Woo in 2014 for holding a press conference alleging real estate agents warned of a negative impact on the school district’s ability to attract international students if the district's newly proposed sexual orientation and gender identity policy was approved.

*Story updated on Feb. 25 at 11:30 a.m. to correct that Ken Denike and Sophia Woo were dropped by NPA after criticizing the sexual orientation and gender identity policy, not the anti-homophobia policy.