The Vancouver Police Department is providing extra protection for Mayor Ken Sim, theBreaker.news has confirmed.
Public information officer Sgt. Steve Addison said Dec. 19 that the undisclosed costs associated with Sim’s security detail “are currently part of the Vancouver Police budget.”
Bob Mackin
“The mayor has been subjected to a number of personal threats in recent months. While we aren’t prepared to disclose specific details of those threats, we have worked with the mayor’s office to employ strategies that mitigate the risk of harm to him,” Addison said by email. “One of these strategies includes deploying a temporary security escort by the Vancouver Police Department at certain times. This practice is used in other cities to protect politicians.”
Sim’s chief of staff, Trevor Ford, did not respond for comment.
On Dec. 17, theBreaker.news captured images of Sim, Ford and another man departing from the annual Pan Pacific Hotel Christmas Wish charity breakfast in a black Ford Expedition sport utility vehicle. The third man, dressed casually like Sim, sported an earpiece in his right ear of the type that is commonly worn by plainclothes protective service officers.
On Hallowe’en, Sim’s garage was vandalized with anti-Israel graffiti and a Chinese phrase that insulted Sim’s ancestors. Supporters of pro-Hamas Samidoun descended upon Sim’s neighbourhood on a Sunday morning last January to protest Sim’s support for the local Jewish community since the Oct. 7 massacre in Israel.
After the Hallowe’en incident, the mayor’s office released a statement from Sim that said he had also received a bomb threat this year. Sim acknowledged scrutiny comes with the job, “but attacks on my family, on our safety and identity, cross a line that no one should ever have to face.”
Vancouver’s current security environment is in stark contrast to calmer times. During the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics, then-Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson was known for arriving at some events as a solo bicyclist.
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