Canadian couple accused of flying to the rural settlement of First Nations and posing as residents to get the vaccine.
Great Canadian Gaming CEO Rod Baker resigned, the company said on Monday, after he and his wife were accused of traveling to a northern Canadian settlement that is largely indigenous and misleading officials in order to to receive the coronavirus vaccine.
Canadian Broadcasting Corp, which first reported the incident, said Baker, 55, and his wife Ekaterina Baker, 32, traveled from Vancouver to the Yukon territory and posed as local workers in the remote Beaver Creek community to receive a dose of Modern vaccine COVID-19.
The Canadian census says that in 2016, 85 of the 93 individuals who lived in the Beaver Creek settlement were indigenous, part of the Rio Branco First Nation.
“We are deeply concerned about the actions of individuals who put our Elders and vulnerable people at risk of skipping the line for selfish purposes,” wrote White River First Nation Chief Angela Demit on Facebook.
Beaver Creek is found in northwest Canada, where rural communities are being given priority for vaccinations, as government data show they face higher rates of infection, Yukon News reported.
Documents filed in the Yukon court record show that the pair were accused on Thursday of not behaving in a manner “consistent with (their) statement”.
They were also accused of not quarantining them for 14 days on arrival in the Yukon and each was fined 1,150 Canadian dollars ($ 905.12), according to the tickets.
Baker did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment.
Great Canadian Gaming said in a statement that it received the resignation of the chief executive on Sunday, but did not offer details, saying it did not comment on personal matters.
Yukon Community Services Minister John Streicker said in a statement that he was “outraged” and found it “disturbing that people would choose to put other Canadians at risk in this way”.
A Yukon government spokesman said he would implement new requirements to prove residency in the territory.