VANCOUVER — Vancouver City Coun. Sean Orr says he has rejected an apology from Mayor Ken Sim for falsely accusing Orr of distributing illegal drugs.

Sim called Orr to apologize on Thursday for the accusation, which he made at a briefing for Chinese-speaking reporters three weeks ago, but Orr says the damage from the remarks has already been done.

Sim had falsely accused Orr of “handing out illegal drugs on Christmas Day to people on the streets.”

Orr says he asked Sim where he got the idea, but got no explanation for the remarks, which were partially repeated last week by Sim’s ABC Party colleague Coun. Lenny Zhou on Chinese social media platform WeChat.

Orr says he was visiting family on the Sunshine Coast on Christmas Day.

He says he wants to build bridges with Chinese-speaking communities, but Sim’s comments drive a wedge between them and make it difficult to do his job.

“I told him, politics aside, how can you do this to another person?” said Orr. “And who is he getting this information from? Is this like a co-ordinated sort of campaign to attack me and discredit me for political gain?”

Zhou said Tuesday that he was “unequivocally” apologizing for sharing incorrect information in his WeChat post, in which he said in Mandarin that non-ABC councillors were drug users and distributors.

Sim praised Zhou for his apology and the deletion of the post — but Sim did not acknowledge at the time that he was the source of the false accusation, with his previous remarks at City Hall on Feb. 6.

Sim told a group of reporters on Friday that he had apologized to Orr, and a spokesman said in a statement that Sim would not be elaborating.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 27, 2026.

Nono Shen, The Canadian Press