Bob Mackin
Fact-checking Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim’s controversial Feb. 6 city hall meeting with crews from Chinese-language media outlets, an early test of ABC Vancouver’s campaign messaging for the Oct. 17 civic election.
That was the meeting, with Coun. Lenny Zhou as Mandarin translator, where Sim lied about COPE Coun. Sean Orr.
Reality: Three weeks later, Sim admitted he was not telling the truth and apologized for falsely claiming that Orr “was handing out illegal drugs on Christmas Day, to people on the streets.”
Orr deemed Sim’s apology insufficient and sued for defamation.
FIFA finances
Sim falsely claimed Vancouver’s “exposure” to FIFA World Cup costs was only $5 million and hosting seven B.C. Place matches would bring “over a billion dollars of economic activity to the City of Vancouver.”
Reality: The provincial government’s May 2026 estimates peg Vancouver’s gross bill at $320 million to $338 million. The province also estimated $1 billion would flow into the B.C. economy by 2031, without providing methodology.
China junket
And, last but not least, Sim told the reporters “After this election… we will be planning a trip to China.”
Reality: That promise is not contained in the ABC Vancouver English platform. Nor did Sim formally table a proposal at any open city council meeting.
Sim made the promise to visit Shanghai, Beijing, Shenzhen, Hong Kong, Shantou and Greater Bay Area twice to locally stationed Chinese diplomats. Once at the Chinese consulate’s Lunar New Year event in January and again in September at the Chinese consulate’s celebration of 77 years of Communist rule.
Foreign interference footnote
In March 2023, Sim scoffed at a Globe and Mail report that, according to a leak from Canada’s spy agency, China’s consul general discussed a strategy to replace pro-Taiwan Mayor Kennedy Stewart with a Chinese-Canadian candidate in 2022.
“If there is proof of this, I’d be as mad as hell as everyone else,” Sim said.
The 2025 Hogue Commission final report warned that China “targets all levels of government in Canada,” and supports those parties that it believes are helpful to its interests, “those it believes are likely to have power, no matter their political party.”
