Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim’s Defamation Trial Set for January 2028, Court Documents Show

Emma MacLeod

9/15/20262 min read

Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim’s defamation case involving Coun. Sean Orr is scheduled to go to trial in January 2028, according to court documents, as the mayor has amended his response to the civil lawsuit.

The trial is set to begin in Vancouver on Jan. 31, 2028.

Orr filed the lawsuit in March after Sim told reporters during a February media briefing that the councillor had “handed out illegal drugs” on Christmas Day in 2025.

Sim does not deny making the statement and later apologized, acknowledging that the allegation was untrue.

His legal filings, however, dispute Orr’s claim that the comments damaged his reputation.

Sim Changes Description of Media Briefing

An amended response filed by Sim in July changes how the mayor describes the event where the comments were made.

Sim’s earlier court filing referred to the gathering at Vancouver City Hall as an “interview.”

The amended filing now describes it as a “non-public and closed event.”

The briefing involved Chinese-language media.

The Canadian Press attended the event and recorded Sim making his remarks in English. Coun. Lenny Zhou, who was also present, translated the comments into Mandarin.

Sim’s amended response says the statement concerning Orr was only published in English after video from the event was “delivered” to English-language media.

Sim Says Orr Has Been Politically Critical of Him

Sim, who is campaigning for re-election next month, also uses his amended court filing to characterize his political relationship with Orr.

The response says Orr has “launched political attacks” against the mayor and has been critical of law enforcement.

The filing does not specify where the original allegation about Orr distributing illegal drugs came from.

It does, however, raise the legal status of personal drug possession in British Columbia at the time.

Sim’s response states that possession of small quantities of drugs for personal use was “not illegal in British Columbia and had not been illegal for close to three years” when the remarks were made.

Mayor Argues Media Quickly Identified Statement as False

The amended response also argues that media coverage limited any potential reputational damage because reports generally identified Sim’s statement as inaccurate.

According to the filing, news reports characterized the comments as “untrue, or inaccurate,” resulting in what Sim argues was “virtually no period” in which a reasonable viewer or media consumer would have believed the allegation to be true.

Orr’s lawsuit alleges that Sim’s remarks were defamatory and harmed his reputation.

Sim’s position is that, despite making and later retracting the statement, Orr did not suffer the level of reputational harm alleged in the lawsuit.

Trial Scheduled More Than a Year Away

David Church, the lawyer representing Sim, declined to comment on the case.

Orr’s lawyer was unavailable for comment Monday but confirmed that the trial date had been scheduled.

With proceedings set to begin on Jan. 31, 2028, the legal dispute is expected to remain unresolved well beyond Vancouver’s upcoming municipal election.

The allegations and defences contained in the civil filings have not yet been determined by the court.

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