VANCOUVER — Mayor Ken Sim has apologizing after falsely accusing Councillor Sean Orr of "handing out illegal drugs" on Christmas Day.The accusation came during a February 6 briefing with Chinese-speaking reporters, where Sim said, "We have a councillor, Sean Orr, just this Christmas, who was handing out illegal drugs on Christmas Day to people on the streets.".Sim addressed the media Friday at an unrelated event, repeatedly apologizing during a scrum focused on the claims.Orr, who denied the allegations, said he was unaware of Sim's comments until recently and was not in Vancouver on Christmas Day."I may have passed my girlfriend’s father a few brewskis, but I don’t think that’s what he’s talking about," Orr said, adding the claims meet the threshold for criminal defamation. "I'm going to look into what that looks like in terms of seeking legal counsel," he said. "But I am appalled, I can tell you that much.".Councillor Pete Fry confirmed he exchanged text messages with Orr on Christmas Day, including photos from Orr on the Sunshine Coast."I know for a fact that the allegation brought forward by Ken Sim is false and a fabrication," Fry said.He criticized Sim's tactics as "exemplifying all of the very worst of the political kind of stunts that we see south of the border from Trump and the like. It’s beyond the pale."Councillor Lenny Zhou, a Sim ally from the ABC party, also apologized for similar false accusations against rivals in a Chinese-language social media video.Zhou said he "unequivocally" apologizes for the post based on "incorrect information" and has deleted it from WeChat.Sim had praised Zhou for "taking responsibility for sharing information that was not accurate," but did not initially disclose he was the original source of the claim.
