Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim is still facing backlash after he apologized for a third time Wednesday over his false accusations that COPE Coun. Sean Orr had distributed free drugs.
UBC political science lecturer Stewart Prest says Sim’s apologies aren’t just going to make his troubles go away.
“This is such a significant lapse in judgment, and it is an error of commission — it’s not just a mistake, it’s not just that he overlooked something,” Prest said.
“He went out of his way to insult another council member, to lead other media to believe that Sean Orr had committed a crime or was doing something along those lines.”
Related articles:
He says the mayor’s actions are completely backwards if his goal is to put the issue to bed.
“He is giving his story additional fuel every time he approaches it,” Prest said.
“His goal is, fundamentally, not to take responsibility for his actions and the gravity of the situation, but rather to try to get out of the doghouse and just turn the page.”
Sim made his claims during a meeting with Chinese-speaking reporters last month, and Prest says making different claims to different language groups sets a dangerous precedent.
“How politics gets talked about in English-language media, in the dominant conversations, is quite different than what gets said in Chinese-language media and in other language media of non-dominant communities,” Prest said.
“That can lead to isolation. That can lead to prejudice. That can lead to mutual suspicion. That can lead to a kind of division in Vancouver’s politics.”
Sim says he based his claims off of a photo he saw, but hasn’t been able to say where he got the image.
He says that despite this incident, he still plans on running for reelection in the fall.