Vancouver mayor suing his former chief of staff for defamation

Vancouver's mayor could soon be going to court against his former chief of staff and a local businessman.

Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim is suing two men, including his former chief of staff Kareem Allam, for defamation, according to documents filed in B.C. Supreme Court Friday.

Sim’s lawsuit alleges Allam and real estate developer Alexander George Tsakumis made “false and defamatory” statements about the mayor.

The statements in question relate to an alleged incident in which Sim was supposedly caught driving drunk by Vancouver police, who let him go without citing him for any offence.

Sim denies that any such incident took place, and an investigation by B.C.’s Office of the Police Complaints Commissioner concluded there was “no objective evidence of an interaction between members of the (Vancouver Police Department) and the plaintiff,” according to the lawsuit.

The OPCC investigation concluded the allegations were “baseless,” the lawsuit states.

Sim’s notice of civil claim alleges that Allam told Tsakumis and others about the purported impaired driving incident, and that Tsakumis later posted about the incident on social media, calling it “one of the most shameful acts by a mayor of this city. Ever.”

Both men are alleged to have made their comments either “with malice, knowing them to be false,” or in “reckless disregard” to the truth.

The allegations against Allam and Tsakumis have not been proven in court and neither man has filed a formal response to Sim’s claim.

Speaking to CTV News by phone on Friday, Allam said it is “a matter of public record” that he was not the source of the allegedly defamatory rumours. He said he would “vigorously defend the truth.”

The lawsuit notes that the allegedly defamatory words were republished in anonymous flyers that circulated during Vancouver’s recent byelection for two empty city council seats.

Allam described the lawsuit as “a cheap, political distraction” and attacked Sim’s record, saying the mayor has made “zero progress” on his agenda while raising property taxes “more than any other mayor in the history of the City of Vancouver.”

“Every single aspect of his platform that he’s run on, he’s failed on, and this is a distraction away from his failures,” Allam said.

In a written statement, Tsakumis also described the lawsuit as political.

“It won’t be the first or last time this mayor is more interested in petty politics and frivolity over the needs of the fine people of Vancouver,” he said, in an email.

“His claims against me are vexatious and entirely meritless. My legal team looks forward to seeing how he holds up at trial, under oath.”

Sim’s claim seeks general, aggravated and punitive damages, as well as a permanent injunction preventing the defendants from “directly or indirectly making, publishing, disseminating or broadcasting the defamatory words, or words of like or similar effect.”

With files from CTV News Vancouver’s Spencer Harwood