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A wealthy Canadian couple from Vancouver traveled to the Yukon to get coronavirus vaccines intended for members of an indigenous tribe.
Canadian media outlets identified the couple as 55-year-old former casino executive Rodney Baker and Ekaterina Baker, a 32-year-old actress.
Yukon health workers have been traveling to rural communities in recent weeks to administer vaccinations. One such community was Beaver Creek, a remote area of the Yukon that is home to approximately a hundred residents, with the majority being members of the White River First Nation.
White River First Nation Chief Angela Demit told The Washington Post that the community was considered a priority "given our remoteness, elderly and high-risk population, as well as limited access to health care."
The couple flew to Whitehorse, a city in Yukon, last week and promised to observe two weeks of mandatory quarantine in a local hotel.
However, the pair traveled to Beaver Creek on Thursday to get their first dose of the Moderna vaccine. They claimed to be new hires at a local motel.
Yukon's community services minister, John Streicker, told the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. that proof of residency is not required at vaccination clinics since many people who work in rural Yukon come from other areas of Canada.
Shortly after getting the vaccine, the Bakers asked for a ride to the airport, which raised concerns among community members.
The vaccine clinic workers then checked with the motel and found the Bakers didn't work there. They alerted law enforcement and officers intercepted the Bakers at the Whitehorse airport.
The Bakers face two charges under Yukon's Civil Emergency Measures Act for violating quarantine guidelines. The couple face fines up to $900 and six months in jail.
The White River First Nation told the Post it wants to see harsher penalties for the Bakers since the fines would be "essentially meaningless" for the wealthy pair.
Rodney Baker was CEO of the Great Canadian Gaming Corp., which runs 20 racetracks and casinos across the country, before he resigned from his position on Sunday, according to local Canadian newspaper the Yukon News. The paper said his total annual income in 2019 was $10.6 million.
Janet Vander Meer, head of the White River First Nation's coronavirus response team, also called for harsher punishments that would deter other people from taking the same actions.
Meer called the incident "another example of ongoing acts of oppression against Indigenous communities by wealthy individuals that thought they would get away with it," in a Monday interview with TV network Global News.
She added that the Bakers' decision to ignore quarantine guidelines could have put vulnerable populations 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 said. "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."
In statement to Newsweek on Tuesday, the White River First Nation said the community "understands that these individuals were charged under the Civil Emergency Measures Act and given a small fine but does not feel that this lenient punishment is appropriate for the gravity of the actions taken, given the potentially lethal effects to our community."
