Canadian couple accused of flying to countryside, First Nations settlement and posing as residents to take vaccine.
Major Canadian gaming CEO Rod Baker has stepped down, the company said Monday, after he and his wife were charged with traveling to a settlement in northern Canada that is mostly indigenous and misleading authorities to receive the coronavirus vaccine.
The Canadian Broadcasting Corp, which first reported the incident, said Baker, 55, and his wife Ekaterina Baker, 32, had traveled from Vancouver to the Yukon area posing as local workers in the remote community of Beaver Creek to get a dose. of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine.
According to the Canadian census, in 2016, 85 of the 93 people living in the Beaver Creek settlement were indigenous, part of the White River First Nation.
“We are deeply concerned about the actions of individuals who put our elders and vulnerable people in danger of jumping over for selfish ends,” Angela Demit, head of the White River First Nation, wrote on Facebook.
Beaver Creek is found in northwestern Canada, where rural communities are prioritized for vaccinations, as government data shows they face higher rates of infection, the Yukon News reported.
Documents filed with the registry of the Yukon District Court show that the couple was charged on Thursday with not behaving in a way that is “consistent with (their) statement.”
They were also charged with not quarantining for 14 days upon arrival in Yukon and fined 1,150 Canadian dollars ($ 905.12) each, according to the tickets.
Baker did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment.
Great Canadian Gaming said in a statement that it received the chief executive officer’s resignation on Sunday, but did not provide details and said it did not comment on personnel issues.
Yukon’s Community Services Secretary John Streicker said in a statement that he was “outraged” and found it “disturbing that people would choose to endanger fellow countrymen in this way.”
A spokesman for the Yukon government said it would introduce new requirements to prove residence in the area.