{"id":45962,"date":"2026-05-15T02:01:23","date_gmt":"2026-05-15T02:01:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/45962\/"},"modified":"2026-05-15T02:01:23","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T02:01:23","slug":"vancouver-mayor-ken-sim-misused-influence-harassed-councillor-investigator-finds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/45962\/","title":{"rendered":"Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim misused influence, harassed councillor, investigator finds"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Mayor Ken Sim in Vancouver in March. Sim says he ‘respectfully’ disagrees with the conclusions in the report.DARRYL DYCK\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

An investigator has found that Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim \u201cmisused the influence of his office\u201d and harassed a councillor in violation of the council\u2019s code of conduct.<\/p>\n

The report dated Monday was based on an investigation by Jamie Pytel of Kingsgate Legal, who was retained by the city to look into the complaint made by Coun. Sean Orr in October 2025.<\/p>\n

Orr\u2019s complaint was about a news conference held by Sim at Vancouver City Hall in April 2025, as well as a social media post made by the mayor later that year that represented Orr as antisemitic.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The report released Thursday finds that Sim\u2019s criticism of Orr at the news conference was \u201cmore a personal calling out\u201d of the councillor, rather than trying to protect the Jewish community against hate crimes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The friction between Sim and Orr continued and in March Orr launched a lawsuit against the mayor for false comments to Chinese-language reporters about the councillor handing out drugs on Christmas Day.<\/p>\n

Vancouver mayor Ken Sim moves to launch bid for MLB expansion team<\/a><\/p>\n

Sim has apologized for those comments, saying he saw an unverified photo, and said in his legal defence that the false claim did not damage Orr\u2019s reputation.<\/p>\n

The report says that Sim\u2019s comments on social media about Orr last year were a continuation of the harassment after the news conference, in violation of the code of conduct.<\/p>\n

Pytel is recommending a request for the mayor to apologize or for possible other sanctions against him.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHolding the news conference was not part of Mayor Sim\u2019s duties,\u201d the investigator says. \u201cUsing the influence of his office to personally attack Coun. Orr was a misuse of the influence of his office.\u201d<\/p>\n

There is sufficient information that Sim objectively harassed Orr at the April 8, 2025, news conference when he personally attacked the councillor by suggesting he was antisemitic or would incite violence or hatred, the report says.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sim referred to social media posts Orr made years before he was elected, and said that as the mayor he had a duty to ensure as a city that \u201cwe are not divided by rhetoric or hate,\u201d the report says.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In a statement, Sim says he has seen the report and \u201crespectfully\u201d disagrees with the conclusions.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy comments were made against the backdrop of a wave of rising antisemitism and hate across Canada,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll elected officials have a responsibility to speak out when a segment of our city feels targeted and unsafe. I reject the claim that it was not my duty as mayor to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the Jewish residents of Vancouver.\u201d<\/p>\n

The report says Sim told the investigator that the concerns he raised about Orr\u2019s comments \u201cwere not his interpretations \u2026 but were the Jewish community\u2019s interpretations.\u201d<\/p>\n

The investigator found that contradicted with what the mayor said during the news conference, including that Orr\u2019s social media posts \u201chit him to his core.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ezra Shanken, the CEO of the Jewish Federation of B.C., said in a statement that the report shows an apparent double standard after it complained about Orr to Vancouver\u2019s integrity commissioner but its complaint was dismissed. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis is why we are grateful to Mayor Ken Sim for raising our community\u2019s concerns about Orr\u2019s social media posts and conduct,\u201d Shanken said in a statement. <\/p>\n

Sam Smart, co-chair of the COPE party that Orr represents on Vancouver council, says in a statement that Sim\u2019s behaviour \u201cis part of a pattern of harmful and personally targeted conduct\u201d against the councillor, and it needs to stop.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Mayor Ken Sim in Vancouver in March. Sim says he ‘respectfully’ disagrees with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":45963,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[164,224,238,214,212,239,17,211,230,231,227,213,210,235,171,234,143,222,249,215,216,229,225,226,219,240,220,244,245,247,242,246,94,243,217,142,233,113,232,241,223,236,237,228,221,95,218,248],"class_list":{"0":"post-45962","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-vancouver","8":"tag-alberta","9":"tag-arts-news","10":"tag-bc","11":"tag-breaking-news","12":"tag-breaking-news-video","13":"tag-british-columbia","14":"tag-canada","15":"tag-canada-news","16":"tag-canada-sports","17":"tag-canada-sports-news","18":"tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","19":"tag-canadian-breaking-news","20":"tag-canadian-news","21":"tag-economy","22":"tag-education","23":"tag-environment","24":"tag-federal-government","25":"tag-foreign-news","26":"tag-globe-and-mail","27":"tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","28":"tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","29":"tag-government","30":"tag-life-news","31":"tag-lifestyle","32":"tag-local-news","33":"tag-manitoba","34":"tag-national-news","35":"tag-new-brunswick","36":"tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","37":"tag-northwest-territories","38":"tag-nova-scotia","39":"tag-nunavut","40":"tag-ontario","41":"tag-pei","42":"tag-photos","43":"tag-political-news","44":"tag-political-opinion","45":"tag-politics","46":"tag-politics-news","47":"tag-quebec","48":"tag-sports-news","49":"tag-technology","50":"tag-travel","51":"tag-trudeau","52":"tag-us-news","53":"tag-vancouver","54":"tag-world-news","55":"tag-yukon"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45962","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45962"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45962\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45963"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}