Couple who chartered plane to get vaccine face charges

Pair misled local health officials about jobs after flying to Yukon for shots

Clad in winter jackets against the northern winter weather, the couple disembarked the small chartered plane and assured the airport manager they would only be there temporarily while they waited out the weather.

They were travelling to Dawson City, Yukon, they told Caulene May, who runs the Beaver Creek airport, but the so-called home of the Klondike Gold Rush was fogged in. So they’d touched down while they waited for the clouds to lift.

The pandemic had slowed traffic at May’s facility — which serves a tiny, remote town of about 100 people next to the Alaskan border — to a trickle. Furthermore, she had no reason to doubt the story, so she settled them into the pilots’ lounge and went back upstairs to her office.

She was still working at her desk when they allegedly set out from the airport for the temporary COVID vaccination clinic about a mile away, reportedly telling the staff there that they worked at a local motel. A motel that May owns.

“They had all sorts of stories ready, that’s for sure,” she says. “I don’t think they realized the place was so small that everybody knows everybody.”

The former head of a casino chain and a woman reported to be an aspiring actor are now facing tickets and fines after travelling to the remote town in Northern Canada allegedly to get a COVID-19 vaccine, in a ballooning controversy that has forced the CEO to step down from his job and infuriated a tight-knit community that had so far mostly kept the pandemic at bay.

According to copies of the citations issued to Rodney Baker, 55, and Ekaterina Baker, 32, at the local courthouse, the pair were each charged with one count of failing to isolate for 14 days and one count of failing to adhere to the declaration form they signed when they entered the community in violation of Yukon’s Civil Emergency Measures Act.

Each count carries a fine of $500, plus a $75 surcharge. According to the ticket, they can either pay the fine or contest the charges and appear in court.

According to the records, the couple live in a suite at a posh hotel and condo highrise in downtown Vancouver.

The Star buzzed the unit Monday afternoon but nobody answered. Other efforts to reach Rod and Ekaterina Baker for comment Monday were unsuccessful.

“They’re just a bunch of rich people that have extra money to spend that want to jump the line,” said Rita Luxton, manager of the 1202 Motor Inn, one of the few businesses in Beaver Creek that has remained open during the pandemic.

The clinic had been set up in the community centre — the medical staff themselves had flown in shortly before the couple from Vancouver — to serve residents of Beaver Creek and members of the neighbouring White River First Nation.

Chief Angela Demit said she was shocked by the news that two people had managed to get in line. She applauds local health officials for their COVID response, noting that the local area has stayed relatively safe — and it’s critical that the virus doesn’t get a foothold now.

According to an emailed statement from Yukon Community Services Minister John Streicker, two people showed up to a vaccine clinic in Beaver Creek on Jan. 21. One presented a British Columbia health card and the other, an Ontario one.

In an email Monday, a spokesperson for Great Canadian Gaming Corp., which owns 25 casinos and other properties across the country, declined to comment on “personnel matters relating to former employees,” but confirmed that Baker is no longer affiliated with the company “in any way.”

“Great Canadian’s board of directors has no tolerance for actions that run counter to the company’s objectives and values,” the statement reads.