Jumping the COVID Queue

"Frankly, I think what we saw yesterday of individuals flying to Yukon was probably one of the most despicable things that I've seen in a long time."

"It shows a complete lack of any sort of ethical or moral compass."

"As we've also seen, they have paid a pretty high price, losing a $10-million-a-year job, as they should."

Mike Farnworth, solicitor general, British Columbia  

 

"And people were like, 'Well, why would you be going to the airport'?" 

"And so that's when the CEMA [Civil Emergencies Measures Act] enforcement unit got called and said, 'Hey, who's this couple that may be flying back? You should check to see whether they really are here in the territory'." 

"All that is being sorted out by the team right now to try and figure out how to keep everybody safe [by ensuring that people who present for vaccinations are residents of or working in the Yukon]."  

"We just didn't anticipate that anyone would go to this length to effectively deceive the team to get vaccinated, and I think we all felt pretty offended at the whole thing."  

"But we will put in place additional procedures … I don't imagine that this is going to repeat itself."   

Yukon Community Services Minister John Streicker   

Rodney and Ekaterina Baker  There is outrage over a B.C. couple's elaborate scheme to jump the queue for a COVID-19 vaccine. They chartered flights, broke quarantines, and now face charges. CBC

The incident being discussed is that of two people from British Columbia taking off in a chartered plane to the Yukon Territory to an aboriginal village of 100 people, where a COVID-19 mobile clinic was administering vaccines -- to present themselves as though they were employees at a nearby motel and thus eligible for inoculation. It was only when they tried to hire someone to drive them out to Whitehorse where the chartered plane would take them back to British Columbia that their ruse was discovered.

 

First Nations villages were being inoculated as priority recipients of the COVID vaccine in recognition of their high vulnerability to contracting the virus. The British Columbia couple had tried to take advantage of that by arriving in Beaver Creek, claiming themselves to be visiting workers, and presenting at the White River First Nation mobile clinic. An outrageously selfish act that cost the couple dearly. Rodney Baker was CEO of Great Canadian Gaming, a company he had worked for over the last decade, that owns over 20 casinos in British Columbia, Ontario, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.

 

The company publishes a circular that revealed their CEO earned $10.6 million in 2019. When his Yukon escapade became public knowledge, the company saw fit to fire him, and he's now out of a job. His wife Ekaterina is an actress, both obviously well connected, wealthy and unscrupulous. They concocted a plan to arrive at the remote First Nations community with limited access to health care, to benefit themselves with an underhanded opportunity to get inoculated with vaccines meant specifically for the White River First Nation band.

 

The Vancouver couple is without doubt, remorseful about their inspired plan to jump the vaccine queue. It has cost them dearly in reputation, employment and shame. They were issued tickets under the territory's Emergency Measures Act, facing fines of up to $1,000, a piffling cost to a couple who can luxuriate in a comfortable lifestyle with a $multi-million annual salary. Rodney, 55, and Ekaterina, 32, were charged with one count of failing to self-isolate for 14 days (on arrival in Yukon) and one count of failing to act in a manner consistent with their declarations.