Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim has filed a lawsuit in civil court against two men for defamation.
The suit names Kareem Allam, political strategist, former campaign manager and chief of staff following Sim’s election and Alexander George Tsakumis, businessman and real estate developer.
On or about Feb. 6, 2023, Allam’s employment with Sim’s team was terminated.
The suit states that sometime around November 2023, Allam told Tsakumis that Sim had driven his car while intoxicated and had been stopped by Vancouver police officers.
Allam also told Tsakumis that Vancouver police let Sim go without booking him or citing him for any offence, according to documents.
“Allam made the statements to Mr. Tsakumas, with the intent that Mr. Tsakumas would publish the statements to others, including on the internet which publication did occur on X.com,” the suit states.
Then, in or about June 2024, Allam told Annie Fournier, a member of the political party, A Better City, that Allam had received a telephone call from a person in the Vancouver mayor’s office stating that Sim had been pulled over by the police for driving under the influence and that the individual in the mayor’s office and a VPD officer had “taken care of it.”
The suit states that Allam said that the “DUI was not the problem. It was the cover-up that was the problem.”
In late 2023, Vancouver police notified the Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner, which ordered an external probe into the matter.
The RCMP led the investigation and the findings were reviewed by Abbotsford police.
Two Mounties interviewed VPD officers, scanned police databases and listened to radio recordings. They also interviewed Tsakumis and Allam.
After nine months of investigating the DUI and VPD cover-up rumour, the Mounties concluded their probe last October.
Abbotsford police Chief Colin Watson reviewed their findings and wrote, “I consider this matter to be baseless. Mr. Tsakumis irresponsibly used ‘X’ to spread a rumour communicated to him by Mr. Allam.”
The suit states that Allam and Tsakumis made defamatory comments about Sim “with malice knowing them to be false, or in reckless disregard to the truth of the statements.”
Sim is seeking general, aggravated and punitive damages, along with a permanent injunction restraining, enjoining and prohibiting the defendants, and each of them, from directly or indirectly making, publishing, disseminating or broadcasting the defamatory words, or words of like or similar effect.