One chilly morning in late January, three planes landed on the lonely runway of a remote community in northern Canada.
The first two carried members of a mobile team from the Yukon-area health department who were there to give Covid-19 vaccines to the residents of Beaver Creek. The small settlement of about 100 residents had been prioritized because of the older population, many of whom belong to the White River First Nation.
The third plane, a bush plane, was unexpected.
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On board were casino director Rod Baker and his wife, actor Ekaterina Baker, who broke quarantine and flew to Beaver Creek for the sole purpose of receiving doses of the Moderna vaccine.
In the hours that followed, the couple traveled into town, pretending to be local motel workers, receiving their shots, and then escaping as quickly as they arrived.
While Canada struggles with vaccine shortages and delays, the Bakers’ deceit is met with contempt and disbelief. The incident – in which a wealthy white couple received treatment intended for the most vulnerable members of an indigenous community – has highlighted the strong divisions of class and race across the country.
“They saw the most vulnerable people in the community in full display and continued to take the picture,” said Janet Vander Meer of the White River First Nation. “I find that disgusting.”
When their chartered plane landed in Beaver Creek, the Bakers told airport personnel that they were heading north to Dawson City, but were forced to land by the fog. They would wait in Beaver Creek for the weather to get better, they said.
They clearly misled the officials when they landed in Whitehorse [the territorial capital] and misled people when they got to the vaccination clinic, ”said Dave Sharp, owner of Tintina Air, whose company was tricked into flying with the Bakers. “They told different people different things.”
While the pilot waited, the couple took a ride to the city’s main drag: a handful of hotels, gas stations, and a tourist information center, lined by black spruce trees and rolling boreal forest.
‘It has really been a bit of a ghost town. And so the vaccination day was meant to be a little glimpse of light at the end of the tunnel for people, ”said Vander Meer, who worked with territorial officials to help set up the vaccination event. “The clinic and the arrival of the vaccine were reasons for us to celebrate.”
Since the beginning of January, the Yukon government has deployed two mobile vaccination teams to reach sensitive and hard-to-reach areas such as Beaver Creek. The teams – Balto and Togo – are named after two famous sled dogs, a nod to the region’s harsh conditions.
It’s unclear how the Bakers were aware of the team’s visit to Beaver Creek – nearly 3,000 km (1,900 miles) from their luxury condominium in downtown Vancouver, British Columbia.
As head of the Great Canadian Gaming Corporation, which runs race tracks and casinos across the country, Rod Baker made a C $ 45.9 million ($ 35.7 million) profit in stock options exercised over the past 13 months, according to The Globe and Mail. He resigned after being charged by Yukon officials. Ekaterina has appeared in a number of films, including Chick Fight and Fatman.
After Bakers reportedly asked for a ride to the airport, members of the vaccine team grew suspicious. Calls to local motels confirmed that neither were employees. The team then contacted Yukon law enforcement officials.
In Beaver Creek, where residents heard the couple’s trick from local reporters, not the government, the immediate response was one of panic: Thanks to the isolation, the community had seen no confirmed cases of the virus, but old age and pre- Existing health concerns put the population firmly in the demographic most vulnerable to Covid-19.
“I’ve never seen anyone charter flights to Beaver Creek,” said Quanah Giuseppe VanderMeer, another White River First Nation member. “I’ve lived there most of my life and I was shocked to hear that they could sneak in like that.”
Janet Vander Meer, who had spent months working out the logistics of the vaccine delivery, went home and cried.
“I felt like I had abandoned my community,” she said. “The mental toll these people are taking on me and my family, making me feel like I’ve done something wrong – that’s not acceptable. It’s something I still struggle with. “
Janet Vander Meeer is still furious to think that before getting their own vaccinations, the Bakers would have both her mother – who is in palliative care and moves with a walker – and an 88-year-old Beaver Creek resident in line watch it wait. for the vaccine.
You would think at that point that one of them would say, ‘Okay, honey, let’s get back to our chartered plane. “But no – they got their chance,” she said.
News of the bakers’ journey reached the rest of the world when local newspapers reported that the couple had been fined for violating lockdown rules. And when the amount of the fine – C $ 2,300 ($ 1,800) – was compared to the couple’s wealth, outrage only grew.
“There’s nothing more un-Canadian than going to another jurisdiction to cross the line because you have the resources to do that,” British Columbia Prime Minister John Horgan told reporters.
Last week, Yukon officials announced that the tickets had been withheld and the Bakers were summoned to appear in court, where they will be charged for not isolating themselves for 14 days and not acting in a manner consistent with their statements. upon arrival in the Yukon. If convicted, they can face up to six months in prison. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police is also investigating. The bakers have not responded publicly since the charges were filed.
In addition to outrage over the Bakers’ behavior, the saga has highlighted the deep-seated racial inequality of the Canadian health care system: many remote indigenous communities lack enough resources to care for residents and are particularly vulnerable to outside infection during the pandemic.
“We know this is a system that has failed indigenous peoples … and treated indigenous peoples as second-class citizens,” said Marc Miller, indigenous services minister, at a conference on racism in health care last week.
Janet Vander Meer said her efforts remained focused on the safety of White River – and made sure nothing like that happened again.
‘I don’t care what they did or thought when they got here. I don’t have time for that, ”she said. “Right now, I have to focus on preparing the community to get the second dose of the vaccine safely. Because that’s the most important thing. “