On a cold morning in late January, three planes landed on a lonely airstrip in a remote community in northern Canada.
The first two transported members of a mobile Yukon health department team who were there to give Beaver Creek residents vaccines from Covid-19. The small settlement of about 100 inhabitants was prioritized because of its older population, many of whom belong to the First Nation of Rio Branco.
The third aircraft, a wild plane, was unexpected.
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On board were casino executive Rod Baker and his wife, actor Ekaterina Baker, who had broken the quarantine and flown to Beaver Creek for the sole purpose of receiving doses of the Modern vaccine.
In the following hours, the couple traveled to the city, pretending to be employees of a local motel, received their shots and ran away as fast as they had arrived.
While Canada struggles with vaccine shortages and delays, the Bakers’ deception was met with contempt and disbelief. The incident – in which a wealthy white couple received treatment for the most vulnerable members of an indigenous community – launched a spotlight on the rigid class and race divisions that affect the country.
“They saw the most vulnerable people within the community on full display and continued to film,” said Janet Vander Meer of White River First Nation. “This is what disgusts me.”
When the chartered plane landed at Beaver Creek, the Bakers told the airport staff that they were going north to Dawson City, but were forced to land in the fog. They would wait at Beaver Creek until the weather improved, they said.
“Obviously they deceived the officers when they landed at Whitehorse [the territorial capital] and deceived people when they arrived at the vaccination clinic, ”said Dave Sharp, owner of Tintina Air, whose company was tricked into flying with the Bakers. “They were saying different things to different people.”
While the pilot waited, the couple took a ride towards the main street of the city: a handful of hotels, gas stations and a tourist information center, surrounded by black fir trees and undulating boreal forest.
“It has really been a ghost town. And so vaccination day should be a small flash of light at the end of the tunnel for people, ”said Vander Meer, who worked with territorial authorities to help organize the vaccination event. “The arrival of the clinic and the vaccine was a reason to celebrate”.
Since the beginning of January, the Yukon government has used two mobile vaccination teams to target vulnerable and difficult-to-reach areas, such as Beaver Creek. The teams – Balto and Togo – are named after two famous sled dogs, in honor of the region’s adverse conditions.
It is unclear how the Bakers learned of the team’s visit to Beaver Creek – nearly 3,000 km (1,900 miles) from their luxury condo in downtown Vancouver, British Columbia.
As head of the Great Canadian Gaming Corporation, which runs racetracks and casinos across the country, Rod Baker made a profit of C $ 45.9 million ($ 35.7 million) on stock options exercised in the past 13 months, from according to Globe and Mail. He resigned after being accused by Yukon officials. Ekaterina has appeared in several films, including Chick Fight and Fatman.
After Bakers reportedly requested a ride to the airport, members of the vaccination team began to suspect. Calls to local motels confirmed that neither was an employee. The team then contacted the Yukon police.
In Beaver Creek, where residents learned of the couple’s maneuver by local reporters, not by the government, the immediate response was one of panic: thanks to their isolation, the community had not seen any confirmed cases of the virus, but aged and pre- existing health conditions meant that its population was firmly in the demographic group most vulnerable to Covid-19.
“I’ve never seen anyone charter flights to Beaver Creek,” said Quanah Giuseppe VanderMeer, another member of the White River First Nation. “I lived there most of my life and it scared me to hear about them being able to sneak in like that.”
Janet Vander Meer, who had spent months working on vaccine delivery logistics, went home and cried.
“I felt like I had disappointed my community,” she said. “The mental burden these people put on me and my family, making me feel like I did something wrong – that is not acceptable. It’s something I’m still struggling with. “
Janet Vander Meeer is still furious to think that before receiving their own vaccines, the Bakers would have seen their mother – who is in palliative care and moving with a walker – and also an 88-year-old Beaver Creek resident waiting in line for the vaccine.
“You would think that, at that moment, one of them would say ‘OK, honey, let’s go back to our chartered plane. But no – they had the chance, ”she said.
News of the Bakers’ trip reached the world when local newspapers reported that the couple had been fined for violating the blocking rules. And when the size of the fine – C $ 2,300 ($ 1,800) – was compared to the couple’s wealth, outrage only increased.
“There is nothing more non-Canadian than going to another jurisdiction to skip the line because you have the means to do so,” British Columbia Prime Minister John Horgan told reporters.
Last week, Yukon officials announced that tickets were suspended and the Bakers were summoned to appear in court, where they will face charges for not being isolated for 14 days and for not acting consistently with their statements upon arriving in the Yukon. If convicted, they face up to six months in prison. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police is also investigating. The Bakers have not commented publicly since the charges were filed.
Along with outrage over Bakers’ behavior, the saga highlighted racial inequities deeply rooted in Canada’s health system: many remote indigenous communities lack sufficient resources to care for residents and are especially vulnerable to external infections during the pandemic.
“We know that this is a system that has failed indigenous peoples … and treated indigenous peoples as second-class citizens,” said Marc Miller, minister of indigenous services, at a conference on racism in the health care system last week.
Janet Vander Meer said that her efforts remained focused on the safety of White River – and ensuring that nothing like this happens again.
“I don’t care what they were doing or thinking about when they came up here. I don’t have time for that, ”she said. “At the moment, I need to focus on preparing the community to receive the second dose of the vaccine safely. Because that is what matters most. “