Canadian couple accused of flying to rural, first-nation localities and presenting themselves as residents to get vaccinated.
Great Canadian Gaming CEO Rod Baker has resigned, the company said Monday, after he and his wife were accused of moving to a settlement in northern Canada, which is the majority of Indigenous and misleading authorities. to receive the coronavirus vaccine.
Canadian Broadcasting Corp., which first reported the incident, said Baker, 55, and his wife, 32-year-old Ekaterina Baker, traveled from Vancouver to the Yukon Territory and posed as local workers in the remote Beaver Creek community to receive a dose. of the Modern COVID-19 vaccine.
The Canadian census says that 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 the elderly and the vulnerable at risk of crossing the line for selfish purposes,” Angela Demit, head of the White River nation, wrote on Facebook.
Beaver Creek is located in northwestern Canada, where rural communities are given priority for vaccinations because government data show they are facing higher rates of infection, Yukon News reported.
Documents filed in the Yukon court register show that the couple was accused on Thursday of not behaving in a way “in accordance with their statement (s)”.
They were also charged with not being quarantined for 14 days upon arrival in the Yukon and each was fined C $ 1,150 ($ 905.12), according to the tickets.
Baker did not immediately return Reuters’ request for comment.
Great Canadian Gaming said in a statement that it received the resignation of the executive director on Sunday, but did not provide any details, saying it did not comment on staffing issues.
Yukon Minister of Community Services John Streicker said in a statement that he was “outraged” and considered it “disturbing that people would choose to endanger their Canadian colleagues in this way”.
A Yukon government spokesman said it would implement new requirements for proving residency in the territory.