COPE Councillor Considering Next Steps After Mayor’s False Drug Accusations

A Vancouver councillor wrongly accused of distributing illegal drugs by Mayor Ken Sim says he is considering a complaint to the city’s integrity commissioner and a possible defamation lawsuit.

“That’s accusing me of a crime,” Sean Orr, a member of the left-wing Coalition of Progressive Electors or COPE party, told The Tyee during a Tuesday interview.

Four days after news media revealed Sim was behind Coun. Lenny Zhou’s claim that Orr had distributed illicit drugs, the mayor finally addressed reporters in a five-minute city hall press conference on Tuesday afternoon. Reporters also continued to ask Sim about his comments at another appearance on Wednesday.

“In a Chinese news briefing, I referenced a picture that had been shown to me regarding Coun. Orr distributing drugs. I didn’t verify what I thought I saw, and frankly I should never have repeated it to begin with,” Sim said on Tuesday, referring to his allegations at a Feb. 6 city hall news briefing with Chinese Mandarin-language news media. Sim and Zhou are both members of the ABC majority on council.

“I have apologized to Coun. Orr directly last week, and today I do want to apologize to Vancouverites, to our team at the City of Vancouver, and my colleagues on council. Luckily we have an incredible city, and my focus will remain serving the people of Vancouver.”

On Feb. 24, Orr joined Green Party Coun. Pete Fry, OneCity Coun. Lucy Maloney and Vote Vancouver Coun. Rebecca Bligh in a press conference where they shared that Zhou had released a video in Mandarin on WeChat accusing at least one of the non-ABC councillors of using and handing out drugs on Christmas Eve.

Later that day Zhou released a written apology, saying he made the statement “based on incorrect information.” Shortly after, Sim released his own written statement, thanking Zhou for “acknowledging his mistake and taking responsibility for sharing information that was not accurate.”

But on Feb. 26, the Canadian Press reported the claim was specifically about Orr and had originated from a statement made by Sim recorded on video during the Feb. 6 briefing.

At the Tuesday press conference, the mayor’s communications staff limited reporters to one question, no followups. The conference ended after four questions, including one from The Tyee about why Sim did not report his suspicion that Orr was distributing drugs to the police.

“Today is about myself acknowledging a mistake,” Sim said in response. “I unreservedly apologize for that mistake.”

Asked by CBC whether he would be repeating his apology in Mandarin to Chinese-language media, Sim said: “This apology is going out to all media in the city of Vancouver. And yes, we will be sending out a statement in Mandarin and Cantonese as well.”

But when asked if that would include sharing the apology on WeChat, Sim did not answer directly.

“We will be using various forms of media to get this out in the appropriate languages,” he said.

The mayor’s press conference lasted less than six minutes.

In response to emailed questions from The Tyee, Vancouver Police Department Sgt. Adam Donaldson would not comment on whether Sim made a police report, citing privacy. But he confirmed Orr was not under police investigation.

Concerns about demeaning AI-generated images

The scandal has put a spotlight on several X accounts that have been creating demeaning AI-generated photos and videos of left-wing politicians. The images feature what look like realistic photographs or videos of real people, but engaged in demeaning or disgusting acts, such as wearing soiled diapers or drooling.

Shawn Vulliez, campaign director for Orr’s re-election effort, said one of these accounts, @VanshittyTV1, had created an image around Christmastime that shows Orr with former COPE councillor Jean Swanson. The fake image depicts the two politicians surrounded by boxes with the logo of the Drug User Liberation Front — an activist group that ran a compassion club supplying heroin, meth and cocaine to some users. The image also includes a Christmas tree.

The Tyee is not including the AI-generated image in this story because it is extremely demeaning.

“If [Sim] did indeed see a photo, the only photo that we’re aware of that exists that hits the ‘Sean Orr, drugs and Christmas’ buttons was an AI slop piece made by this account, that is very clearly and visibly not real,” said Vulliez.

The Tyee showed the image to Sim during a Wednesday press conference and asked if this was the photo he was referencing.

“No, that’s not the one,” Sim said.

When asked how it differed from the photo he saw, Sim was vague.

“Once again I am acknowledging I made a mistake here. At the end of the day, a member of the public presented me with a photo. I didn’t validate it, that’s on me. I made comments about it in public. I shouldn’t have done it.”

Zhou, who was present at Wednesday’s press conference alongside ABC Couns. Sarah Kirby-Yung, Mike Klassen and Peter Meiszner, did not answer a reporter’s question about whether Sim had been the sole source of his statement that a city councillor was distributing illegal drugs.

Instead Zhou said he supported the mayor’s apology.

The image of Orr, Swanson and the Christmas tree is just one of dozens of AI-generated images of politicians that appear on the X account. Many of the images and posts focus on Orr, but there are also grotesque images of the three other non-ABC Vancouver councillors, as well as Premier David Eby.

The account primarily focuses on sharing videos of fights, street disorder and drug use in the Downtown Eastside, but also reposts far-right content, such as a post that mocked the death of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement observer Alex Pretti in Minneapolis.

“People don’t want to see this hyperpartisan atmosphere where we’re just lying about each other, and that’s what we’re seeing in the United States: character assassination and misinformation peddled by a lot of far-right groups,” Orr said.

One of the more disturbing pieces of content on the account is an AI-generated video that depicts a story Orr has told about having a previous mental health crisis where he cut the word “help” into his chest with a pen. The AI-generated video depicts this incident in graphic and gory detail.

Orr, who has been public about his past drug use and mental health issues but denied ever distributing or selling illicit drugs, said this kind of online harassment — and Sim’s comments — will dissuade ordinary people from running for public office.

“You’re going to have these politicians that are so sanitized and controlled, and don’t have that lived experience and share their history,” he said.

Mike Tan, a Chinatown social housing advocate who is seeking to run for council as a OneCity candidate in the October municipal election, told The Tyee he was pleased to see Sim “take ownership” of the false information.

“But I’m really disappointed that it took five days, and only after calls from many leaders in the community pressured him to do so,” Tan said.

“While I acknowledge that there’s a written statement in simplified and traditional Chinese, until Mayor Ken Sim and Coun. Zhou post this, in Mandarin, to Coun. Zhou’s WeChat... this is still an incomplete apology because many folks will not have seen the retraction.”

At Wednesday’s press conference Sim told media he would be open to apologizing in person to members of the Chinese community after a reporter asked him about criticism that a written apology would not be enough.

“Absolutely,” he said. “We want to get the message out, and thank you very much for coming here today to help us get the message out.”

‘Orr is owed a lot more than just this flimsy apology’

“I don’t think that was a meaningful apology,” said Green Coun. Fry, who attended the press conference. “I don’t think that’s acceptable, and frankly I think Coun. Orr is owed a lot more than just this flimsy apology.”

Asked if he had ever witnessed Sim make ad hominem attacks like this before, Fry told The Tyee that he had witnessed the mayor make a similar type of statement about former Green Party councillor Adriane Carr.

“It was an in-camera meeting, so I can’t really get into what the subject matter was. But the tenor and approach was very similar: it targeted Coun. Carr, and shortly thereafter she made the decision to leave council,” Fry said.

The Tyee reached out to Carr, who confirmed a remark from Sim made during an in-camera meeting was one of the reasons she resigned from council in January 2025.

“There was a pivotal moment that I made that decision, and that decision was because of something that happened in camera,” said Carr, adding she had also been disheartened by ABC motions that undid much of the climate crisis work she helped initiate, leading up to this in-camera incident.

“Any staff person or councillor that was in that meeting will know what I’m talking about. After that point I made it quite clear in public that I had lost complete confidence and trust in the mayor.”

Orr told The Tyee he doesn’t want to centre himself as a victim when the mayor’s statement has “weaponized” disinformation against the Cantonese- and Mandarin-speaking communities, as well as moralizing and politicizing drug use, which is a public health issue.

“It hurts Vancouver’s image, too. It makes us look unserious.”