Wealthy couple chartered a plane to the Yukon, took vaccines doses meant for Indigenous elders, authorities said
Category: News & Politics
Via: sister-mary-agnes-ample-bottom • 3 years ago • 80 commentsBy: Antonia Noori Farzan (MSN)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Wealthy couple chartered a plane to the Yukon, took vaccines doses meant for Indigenous elders, authorities said
Located deep in Canada's Yukon, the remote community of Beaver Creek is home to only about 100 people, most of them members of the White River First Nation.
So when an unfamiliar couple who claimed to work at a local motel showed up at a mobile clinic to receive coronavirus vaccines, it didn't take long for locals to become suspicious. Authorities soon found that the couple were actually wealthy Vancouver residents who had chartered a private plane to the isolated outpost so that they could get shots intended to protect vulnerable Indigenous elders.
"I can't believe I've ever seen or heard of such a despicable, disgusting sense of entitlement and lack of a moral compass," Mike Farnworth, the British Columbia solicitor general, said Monday, according to the Vancouver Sun.
Canadianmediaoutlets have identified the couple as casino executive Rodney Baker, 55, and his wife, Ekaterina Baker, a 32-year-old actress whose recent credits include the 2020 films "Fatman" and "Chick Fight." Each faces fines totaling the equivalent of about $900 for violating quarantine guidelines. Neither could immediately be reached for comment late Monday, and it was not clear whether they have attorneys.
Investor disclosures show that Baker earned more than $10.6 million in 2019 as CEO and president of the Great Canadian Gaming Corp., which owns more than 20 casinos across Canada and is the subject of a separate money laundering probe. He resigned Sunday after charges were filed. A spokesman said that Great Canadian "has no tolerance for actions that run counter to the company's objectives and values."
The White River First Nation, which wants to see stiffer penalties for the couple, said in a statement to The Washington Post that the relatively small fines would be "essentially meaningless" for such wealthy individuals.
"It's clear to me that because we are a predominantly Indigenous community, that they assumed we were naive," Chief Angela Demit said.
Catch up on the most important developments in the pandemic with our coronavirus newsletter. All stories in it are free to access.
In recent weeks, Yukon health workers have been traveling to rural areas and trying to vaccinate as many people as possible, and Demit noted that Beaver Creek and the White River First Nation were considered a priority "given our remoteness, elderly and high-risk population, as well as limited access to health care." The nearest health clinic is more than three hours away, and the closest major hospital is in the city of Whitehorse, close to a five-hour drive.
Authorities say the Bakers flew to Whitehorse early last week, and promised to spend two weeks in mandatory quarantine in a local hotel. Instead, they chartered a private plane to take them to Beaver Creek on Thursday. There, they were easily able to get their first shots of the Moderna vaccine. Many people who work in rural Yukon come from other parts of Canada, so proof of residency hasn't been required at traveling vaccination clinics, Yukon Community Services Minister John Streicker told the Canadian Broadcasting Corp.
The couple claimed to be new hires at a nearby motel, but raised suspicions when they asked for a ride to the airport shortly after getting their shots, Streicker said. "People were like, 'Well, why would you be going to the airport?'" he told the CBC.
Workers from the vaccination clinic checked with the motel, and alerted law enforcement when they learned that the Bakers didn't work there.
After finding that the Bakers had already checked out of the Whitehorse hotel where they were supposed to be quarantined, officers headed to the city's airport, arriving not long after the couple's charter flight returned from Beaver Creek. They intercepted the pair just as they were preparing to fly back to their luxury condo in downtown Vancouver.
Though the Bakers were charged with violating quarantine protocols, it wasn't immediately clear they could face additional consequences for getting vaccines that were intended for rural Yukon residents. After Baker's resignation was announced, Farnworth told News1130 that "the fact the individual lost a $10 million a year job" was probably a bigger penalty than anything his office could impose.
But Janet Vander Meer, the head of the White River First Nation's coronavirus response team, argues that the couple should be held accountable in a way that will deter other Canadians from trying to take advantage of the same loophole. In a Monday statement, she called the incident "another example of ongoing acts of oppression against Indigenous communities by wealthy individuals that thought they would get away with it," and pointed out that the breach of quarantine guidelines could have put vulnerable elders at risk.
"Our oldest resident of Beaver Creek, who is 88 years old, was in the same room as this couple. My mom, who's palliative, was in the same room as this couple," she told Globalnews.ca on Monday. "That's got to be jail time. I can't see anything less. For what our community has been through the last few days. The exhaustion. It's just mind-boggling."
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What a couple of straight up skanks.
wow, canadian trumpsters. whoda thunk it.
The producers of the two 'movies' she was in...Fatman and Chick Fight...didn't deem it important enough to include her photo in the credit lineup.
Unfortunately Trumpsterism is a universal mental disease. It can strike anywhere in the world. There is currently no vaccine to prevent it and treatment consists only of isolation in a 6x8 room with a metal door.
[deleted]
She won't. She has balls unlike some other seeders here
How many more people on this thread need to tell you? Well here's one more. Their off-the-chain sense of entitlement, combined with their lack of respect for First Nation people, especially the elders of the tribe, made the Trumpian resemblance a tad obvious. They took something to which they were not entitled. They took it away from the elderly people of the tribe, and they lied to get it.
What are your thoughts regarding this couple's behavior?
Only when you are in the room...
And I keep a spare set in my purse.
Oh! I thought that extra set belonged to somebody else....
... she apparently hasn't been summoned to this seed yet.
SMAAB - remember, when you "assume" something, "you make an ass out of u and me".
You, and many others on NT, may have a dire hate for the Former President, but attempting to justify a ridiculous and idiotic comment by saying it "resembles" a Trumpian action is not very worthy.
As Trump is not mentioned in the article/seed/thread, there is absolutely no reason to justify the commenter's statement with your opinion of what the commenter "meant".
JMHO
nobody cares.
... her face was probably somewhere else during production.
Their actions are indicative of the disease.
That's pretty presumptuous of an awful lot of people. I can promise you, I know a lot of Trump supporters that would find the acts of the assholes in this article absolutely disgusting. I personally don't know anyone that would steal potentially life-saving vaccinations from Native elders.
You are absolutely correct. Question is if you can find NON-Trumpers that agree with the assholes in the article?
Don't know if they supported Trump or were against him, but there are numerous stories of rich people (ie, the people in this seed) who are attempting to purchase a shot and jump ahead of other people. These articles are all over the place. Here's just a couple...
How the Wealthy Are Maneuvering to Get the Vaccine First - The New York Times (nytimes.com)
Rich And Powerful Attempt To Jump Covid Vaccine Queues (forbes.com)
The wealthy have always attempted to jump the line as they feel their money gives them the power to do so.
Thank you for your keen observation.
Thank you for teaching us all such an important lesson today.
I am under no obligation to tell you anything. No one on this seed has to tell you anything. Although I realize that asking less than stellar questions seems to be the only interaction method you posses, it does become rather taxing on one's patience.
A joke was made. BFD. Others got a giggle. BFD. I'm afraid you will need to get over it.
Funny how some folks think we owe them something!
Any time Ma'am - I always please to help.
[deleted]
Just like the college applicants, wealthy parents thought they could buy their brats' acceptance. So gross !
You always help me out, Sugar-bush. But let's continue to keep it our secret.
Now, former seed-irrelevant comments not withstanding, how do you feel about what this couple did? When I first read the article, I was appalled. I'm still appalled. Every time I read an article where an injustice was done/is being done/might be done to First Nations people, I think of Kav and Raven and you, among others here, it makes me angry enough to want to say something about it.
Something in the neighborhood of being hung by his testicles and she by her, if she has any, breasts for the complete 9 month winter. During the one month Spring, one month Summer and one month Fall, have them be the bait for the Elephant Walrus.
Hope that's not too ruff.
The Warriors of the Clan/Tribe/Nation should mete out the punishment as directed by the Elders - as is the custom of most Clans/Tribes/Nations. The Warriors are there to protect all Elders, women and children. This "couple" violated so many damn Native American/Alaska Native traditions, customs and rules - hell - by "stealing" the vaccine, they are "intentionally" committing murder through depriving an Elder their rightful dose of medicines.
JMHO
You rabidly denying it is enough for me to believe it
It was most likely stuck to the director's ass.
Oh, and what a lovely shot of he and his daughter...
poor thing has never had to travel that far for an injection before ...
Whaddaya think? Is she a gold digger?
Purchased...directly from Russia. I don't think it was a 'I luff yew long time' purchase. I think the postal service played a part. It's amazing what you can buy in those mail order catalogues.
a colleague of mine actually had a russian bride years ago. "a fashion model", *cough*, it didn't work out. after several years she went back to russia and the teenage son she had brought with her to america is still in prison here. gta, rico, gun crimes ... he's fucked.
Probably and that makes him a cradle robber.
Used to be a bouncer and met a few Russian strippers.
Never got around to sleeping with any of them.
By choice or...? Feel free to be explicit.
He is!
I feel certain it was by choice
Seriously? Only a $900 fine for each? People like this make me sick.
Me, too. Here's an update to put a smile on your face. It's a WAPO article, so I'll include all of it here due to possible paywall issues.
Located deep in Canada’s Yukon, the remote community of Beaver Creek is home to only about 100 people, most of them members of the White River First Nation.
So when an unfamiliar couple who claimed to work at a local motel showed up at a mobile clinic to receive coronavirus vaccines, it didn’t take long for locals to become suspicious. Authorities soon found that the couple were actually wealthy Vancouver residents who had chartered a private plane to the isolated outpost so that they could get shots intended to protect vulnerable Indigenous elders.
“I can’t believe I’ve ever seen or heard of such a despicable, disgusting sense of entitlement and lack of a moral compass,” Mike Farnworth, the British Columbia solicitor general, said Monday, according to the Vancouver Sun.
Canadian media outlets have identified the couple as casino executive Rodney Baker, 55, and his wife, Ekaterina Baker, a 32-year-old actress whose recent credits include the 2020 films “Fatman” and “Chick Fight.” Each faces fines totaling the equivalent of about $900 for violating quarantine guidelines. Neither could immediately be reached for comment late Monday, and it was not clear whether they have attorneys.
Investor disclosures show that Baker earned more than $10.6 million in 2019 as CEO and president of the Great Canadian Gaming Corp., which owns more than 20 casinos across Canada and is the subject of a separate money laundering probe . He resigned Sunday after charges were filed. A spokesman said that Great Canadian “has no tolerance for actions that run counter to the company’s objectives and values.”
The White River First Nation, which wants to see stiffer penalties for the couple, said in a statement to The Washington Post that the relatively small fines would be “essentially meaningless” for such wealthy individuals.
“It’s clear to me that because we are a predominantly Indigenous community, that they assumed we were naive,” Chief Angela Demit said.
Catch up on the most important developments in the pandemic with our coronavirus newsletter. All stories in it are free to access.In recent weeks, Yukon health workers have been traveling to rural areas and trying to vaccinate as many people as possible, and Demit noted that Beaver Creek and the White River First Nation were considered a priority “given our remoteness, elderly and high-risk population, as well as limited access to health care.” The nearest health clinic is more than three hours away, and the closest major hospital is in the city of Whitehorse, close to a five-hour drive.
Authorities say the Bakers flew to Whitehorse early last week, and promised to spend two weeks in mandatory quarantine in a local hotel. Instead, they chartered a private plane to take them to Beaver Creek on Thursday. There, they were easily able to get their first shots of the Moderna vaccine. Many people who work in rural Yukon come from other parts of Canada, so proof of residency hasn’t been required at traveling vaccination clinics, Yukon Community Services Minister John Streicker told the Canadian Broadcasting Corp.
The couple claimed to be new hires at a nearby motel, but raised suspicions when they asked for a ride to the airport shortly after getting their shots, Streicker said. “People were like, ‘Well, why would you be going to the airport?’” he told the CBC.
Workers from the vaccination clinic checked with the motel, and alerted law enforcement when they learned that the Bakers didn’t work there.
After finding that the Bakers had already checked out of the Whitehorse hotel where they were supposed to be quarantined, officers headed to the city’s airport, arriving not long after the couple’s charter flight returned from Beaver Creek. They intercepted the pair just as they were preparing to fly back to their luxury condo in downtown Vancouver.
Though the Bakers were charged with violating quarantine protocols, it wasn’t immediately clear they could face additional consequences for getting vaccines that were intended for rural Yukon residents. After Baker’s resignation was announced, Farnworth told News1130 that “the fact the individual lost a $10 million a year job” was probably a bigger penalty than anything his office could impose.
But Janet Vander Meer, the head of the White River First Nation’s coronavirus response team, argues that the couple should be held accountable in a way that will deter other Canadians from trying to take advantage of the same loophole. In a Monday statement, she called the incident “another example of ongoing acts of oppression against Indigenous communities by wealthy individuals that thought they would get away with it,” and pointed out that the breach of quarantine guidelines could have put vulnerable elders at risk.
“Our oldest resident of Beaver Creek, who is 88 years old, was in the same room as this couple. My mom, who’s palliative, was in the same room as this couple,” she told Globalnews.ca on Monday. “That’s got to be jail time. I can’t see anything less. For what our community has been through the last few days. The exhaustion. It’s just mind-boggling.”
Source
What's different there from what was in the article above? I realize that he no longer has that super high-paying job anymore [because it was in the article you posted]... but I still think there should be jail time for endangering the elders of that nation.
Mr. Baker resigned from his job Sunday. I felt it was an important update.
Thank you for your comments.
Sounds like something out of a Netflix series. Are they drug dealers too ?
Oddly enough, he is the main suspect in a money laundering scheme. What a surprise.
I stayed the night in White Horse.
Back in the day spent a night in the Lincoln bedroom. Didn't sleep a moment.
What kept you awake ?
Can you tell us about it ?
Who cares? Tell us anyway!!
Probably got something to do with the Russian strippers.
It was White HORSE, Canada. We were PCSing from Eielson Alaska to Reese AFB TX. Pretty town
Lincoln frolicked with Russian trippers?
Well, his Sec of State, William Seward bought Alaska...from Russia.
I have to go google that.
Looks like Seward was Lincoln's appointee
Oh, god I read "White House", sorry ; > )
It's all good.
Where? As I remember it the Gold Rush Inn was the best place to stay (and Whiskey Jacks was the best place to drink)
I'm trying to remember but it was over 30 years ago. We only stayed one night. We wanted to make it to BC the next day
The First Nations' way of handling this would have been banishment. That means that no plane back home and they are left to their own devices to survive in the Yukon. The current temperature is -21 F. Good luck moosh noosh chimooks.
BTW the fishing there is great.
After reading through all of this what mainly occurs to me is that this 55 year old and 32 year old wanted their lives back, in terms of being able to party and travel and go maskless, and not social distance, and gain those abilities by taking something to which they were not entitled.
Hard to say if they are Trump sympathizers per se, although the desire to go about "their " lives without needing to concern themselves with masks or social distancing has a Trumpian ring to it. The clincher would be if they used other people's money to pay for the flight to the village where the vaccine was.
Scum
Not good examples of Canadians as far as I am concerned. Because of their wealth the $900 fines are just pennyante to them and some better form of ostracizing them needs to be administered, like confiscation of his gaming licence due to bad character - THAT would screw the S.O.B.
Reading what Sister posted above, he could be looking at jail/prison time in the near future for money laundering and felt a desperate need to get the vaccine prior to incarceration.
That news, if it were known to his fellow inmates, would probably get his ass beat.
What - you can get a pre-STD vaccine before going to jail?
On Rock's Humour list I once posted a joke about how someone convinced a lot of people to give up drugs in order to stay out of jail.. He used the "double O" story. This is your asshole before you go to jail "o", and this is your asshole AFTER you've been in jail "O".