VANCOUVER — Mayor Ken Sim held a press conference on Tuesday to once again apologize for accusing Councillor Sean Orr of handing out drugs during Christmas — a claim that has been thoroughly debunked.Speaking to reporters afterwards, Orr said the mayor's apology didn't go far enough, arguing it failed to address the damage the incident has done and explain the steps government will take to ensure it doesn't happen again.."I referenced a picture that had been shown to me regarding Councillor Orr distributing drugs," Sim said. "I didn't verify what I thought I saw, and quite frankly, I should’ve never repeated it to begin with."He told Vancouverites he's sorry, and explained that he apologized to Orr directly days earlier..Sim said he would also be providing Vancouver's Chinese community a full apology and explanation in Cantonese and Mandarin..When asked how he would prevent something like this from happening again, Sim vowed to hold himself to a "higher standard" when reviewing information."This has been a great learning experience for myself," he said. "I made a mistake — people make mistakes, leaders make mistakes. That's just a fact of life."The mayor only took four questions, ."This doesn't go far enough," Orr said of Sim's apology. "This doesn’t address the reputational harm and damage done to my character, and this doesn't address the harms done to the Chinese community … This doesn’t set out a plan going forward on how to prevent this."."To me this shows incompetent leadership," he added. "That you would not fact-check this photo before going to the media and trying to destroy the reputation of one of your colleagues doesn't make sense to me.".Orr argued that the way Sim has handled the incident "speaks speaks to this larger pattern of how everything is so tightly funnelled through [the mayor’s] office.".Sim has not told Orr, nor reporters, where the image originated. The councillor speculated that it could have been AI-generated content shared by an X account known for posting about him."There's been really vile, disgusting images put out there, and I'm wondering if that's the same," Orr said, referring to @VancityNews1, which was recently suspended, and its new iteration, @VanshittyTV1.The accounts were, and are, followed by a number of prominent people, including Sim's chief of staff.."I don't think it's one person," Orr said. "I think it's a bunch of very powerful people that are behind this account."Sim originally made the accusation during a February 6 briefing with Chinese media."We have a councillor, Sean Orr, just this Christmas, who was handing out illegal drugs on Christmas Day to people on the streets," he said.On Christmas, Orr was vacationing with family on the Sunshine Coast."I may have passed my girlfriend's father a few brewskis, but I don't think that's what he's talking about," the councillor quipped upon hearing the allegations.
