ABC councillor allegedly accused opposition politicians of distributing drugs | Georgia Straight Vancouver’s source for arts, culture, and events

1 of 1 2 of 1 Get the best of Vancouver in your inbox, every Tuesday and Thursday. Sign up for our free newsletter.Councillors Rebecca Bligh, Pete Fry, Lucy Maloney, and Sean Orr held a press conference today alleging that ABC councillor Lenny Zhou accused them of both using and distributing drugs in a WeChat video. “It’s incredibly concerning,” said Bligh, who is running for mayor in the coming municipal election under the Vote Vancouver banner. “This behaviour needs to be called out right away.”Bligh also noted that there may be some grounds for libel. The video, which was shared with the press after the conference, shows Zhou talking directly to the camera in Mandarin. The councillors said that they had four different transcriptions of the video completed and all of them indicated that Zhou had made the allegations in question. “It was well-distributed on WeChat,” said Green Party councillor and mayoral candidate Fry. “It puts us at public risk… it’s remarkably offensive. My wife is incredibly upset.”OneCity councillor Lucy Maloney added that it was “so far across the line, I find it breathtaking.”COPE councillor Sean Orr compared the statements to the moral panic around drug use in the 1980s. Bligh noted that the councillors hadn’t talked to Zhou before the conference. After the conference, the mayor’s press secretary, Taylor Verrall, didn’t have any comments on the video and said that he hoped to have something soon. UPDATE: According to the CBC's Justin McElroy, Zhou has released an apology statement for the video. Join the discussion Facebook comments not loading? Please check your browser settings to ensure that it is not blocking Facebook from running on straight.com