Billionaire CEO quits after posing as motel worker to jump vaccine queue for indigenous people
Rod Baker and his wife Ekaterina chartered a private plane and travelled to the remote region in Yukon
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Your support makes all the difference.A casino company boss has resigned after reports he travelled to a remote indigenous community in northern Canada with his wife and received the coronavirus vaccine intended for vulnerable residents.
Rod Baker, the former CEO of Great Canadian Gaming Corp, and his partner Ekaterina, reportedly chartered a private plane to Beaver Creek, in the Yukon territory near the Alaskan border.
The couple were said to have posed as motel workers at a mobile clinic and tricked authorities into receiving the jab, as reported by Yukon News.
The sparsely populated territory, which is home to many indigenous people, has a faster vaccination rate than in the rest of Canada, government data shows.
Baker, 55, and his wife, 32, were found out after they asked to be taken straight to the airport after receiving the inoculation.
Great Canadian Gaming Corp, valued at $2bn (£1.6bn), said in a statement that it received the chief executive officer's resignation on Sunday but offered no details, stating that it did not comment on personnel matters.
Documents filed in the Yukon court registry show the pair were charged on Thursday with having failed to behave in a manner "consistent with (their) declaration."
"We are deeply concerned by the actions of individuals who put our Elders and vulnerable people at risk to jump the line for selfish purposes," White River First Nation Chief Angela Demit, leader of the local indigenous nation, wrote on Facebook.
Yukon's Community Services Minister John Streicker said in a statement he was "outraged" and found it "disturbing that people would choose to put fellow Canadians at risk in this manner."
Mr Baker and his wife were also charged with failing to quarantine for 14 days on arrival in Yukon and were given a fine of $1,150 (£660).
A spokesman for the Yukon government said it would implement new requirements for proving residency in the territory.
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