Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim apologizes to councillor for unsubstantiated comments about distributing drugs
CBC
Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim has apologized for claiming, without evidence, that his fellow council member Sean Orr distributed illegal drugs.
"I spoke with Coun. Orr yesterday, and I apologize for my comments," Sim said in a media scrum at an unrelated news conference on Friday.
Sim refused to answer more specific questions from reporters and instead responded with the same statement more than a dozen times.
The mayor had previously praised Coun. Lenny Zhou, who is part of Sim's ABC Vancouver party, for apologizing and retracting comments about opposition councillors in a video posted on the social media platform WeChat.
But Sim himself made similar remarks at a media briefing for Chinese-speaking reporters earlier this month, before Zhou posted the video.
Sim said on Feb. 6: "We have a councillor, Sean Orr, just this Christmas, who was handing out illegal drugs on Christmas Day to people on the streets."
The video briefing was provided to CBC News by CityNews/OMNI.
Orr has denied this allegation "unequivocally."
Sim did not answer questions Friday about where the information he spoke about came from or whether it was irresponsible as a leader to repeat the comments without fact-checking.
"As a leader, I, you know, called Sean Orr, or Coun. Orr, and I apologized for my comments," he said.
He did not address the Chinese community directly and said he does not distinguish between media of different languages.
"I think the media is here today, and I'm telling everyone that I spoke with Coun. Orr, and I apologize for my comments."
Orr, a COPE city councillor, told CBC's The Early Edition on Friday that he has never handed out free illegal drugs.
He acknowledged that Sim had called him to apologize and added Sim said he had false information.
People who use the Indigenous-led overnight shelter on the edge of downtown Winnipeg are weighing their next steps after learning the facility is set to shut down, but Manitoba's premier says nobody will get left behind.
An 81-year-old man from Prince County has died after a single-vehicle crash on Route 14 near Christopher Cross, police say.
The B.C. government has raised the ceiling to $75,000 for potential damages over intimate-image abuse.
A man was found dead inside a house on Elm Street in Niagara Falls after it caught fire on Wednesday night, police say.
It’s been eight days since Suncor’s Sarnia refinery reported an oil spill into the St. Clair River, and it remains unclear what caused the pipeline leak, how much got into the water — and where cleanup efforts are at.
A joint operation involving Edmonton police has led to the deportation of two men, over what police say is a wave of extortions targeting the city's South Asian community.
Red Lake is hoping a petition will help it land federal funding for a new arena.
An N.W.T. MLA says the territory needs to fiercely protect treaty rights and territorial waters, amid Alberta’s merger of two major river basins, and the proposed treatment and release of oilsands tailings into the environment.
The Supreme Court of Canada will hear arguments against the Liberal government's deeply controversial decision to outlaw certain firearms.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith is rejecting Opposition accusations of entitlement for using a private jet last fall courtesy of the Saudi government.
Newfoundland and Labrador’s department of Transportation and Infrastructure is promising policy changes after a Conception Bay South family spoke out about the expropriation and resale of the land where their home once stood.
Nova Scotia’s seniors and long-term care minister is calling on administrators at nursing homes to make direct appeals to their employees amidst protracted contract talks with the union representing workers at more than 50 sites.
A pair of Saint John poverty researchers have told N.B. Power's rate hearing that rising electricity prices are a serious affordability problem for low-income households and the utility or provincial government should match programs in place elsewhere that would help.