Former casino CEO, actress identified as couple who flew to Yukon, got COVID-19 vaccines

Yukon Community Services Minister John Streicker told CBC Monday the couple arrived in Whitehorse on Jan. 19. However, instead of completing a mandatory 14-day self-isolation period, the Bakers on Jan. 21 chartered a flight to Beaver Creek, a community of about 100 people roughly 450 kilometres northwest of Whitehorse near the Alaska border. 

There, according to Streicker, they took advantage of a mobile vaccination clinic that was administering the first doses of the Moderna vaccine to locals, claiming that they were new employees at an area motel.

The pair are accused of violating the territorial Civil Emergency Measures Act (CEMA) by failing to self-isolate and failing to adhere to entry declarations. 

The CBC has reached out to both Bakers for comment but, as of publication, had not received any replies. 

Rodney Baker, who also goes by Rod, was appointed president of the Great Canadian Gaming Corporation in 2010 and then CEO in 2011. The corporation owns more than 20 casinos in British Columbia, Ontario, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia and, last year, became embroiled in an inquiry looking into allegations of corruption and money-laundering in B.C. casinos.  

Great Canadian Gaming spokesperson Chuck Keeling told CBC in an email on Monday that the company “does not comment on personnel matters.” However, he wrote that it “strictly follows all directives and guidance issued by public health authorities in each jurisdiction where we operate.”  

Ekaterina Baker, meanwhile, is a Russian-born actress who, according to her IMDB page, appeared in a handful of films last year. 

According to social media posts, the couple married in 2017. 

The couple raised suspicions in Beaver Creek when they asked for a ride to the airport afterwards.

“And people were like, ‘Well, why would you be going to the airport?'” Minister Streicker said. 

“And so that’s when the CEMA enforcement unit got called and said, ‘Hey, who’s this couple that may be flying back? You should check to see whether they really are here in the territory.”

Members of the mobile clinic team also called the motel, according to Streicker, who told them the couple didn’t work there. 

CEMA officers were able to identify the couple via their entry declaration forms — everyone who enters Yukon from another jurisdiction is required to fill one out —  and went to the Whitehorse airport, after the couple’s chartered plane returned. 

Officers then went to the hotel where the two were supposed to be self-isolating, but found they’d already checked out. Officers returned to the airport and located the couple as they were getting ready to leave the territory, Streicker said.

The tickets list the Bakers as sharing an address in downtown Vancouver, although social media posts appear to indicate that they split their time between B.C. and Toronto. 

Meanwhile, White River First Nation, whose government office is located in Beaver Creek, issued a statement over the weekend condemning the couple’s actions and calling for harsher penalties. 

The statement also slammed the Yukon government’s communications protocols, noting that the First Nation first learned about the incident from the “news media” instead of the Yukon government. 

Streicker, in his interview Monday, said he took responsibility for the failure to immediately contact the First Nation and that he and the territory’s chief medical officer of health have since spoken to the First Nation’s leadership.

CEMA violations come with a maximum penalty of a $500 fine per charge, six months’ jail or both. The couple has 30 days to either pay the fine or plead not guilty and request a trial. 

Tighter policies

Streicker also said the territory is working on making tighter policies to avoid a similar incident — the likelihood of which he deemed to be low — from happening again.

For example, in the case of this couple, one had presented an Ontario health card, and the other had a B.C. health card, he said. Those wouldn’t have necessarily prevented them from getting a vaccine as there are many out-of-territory workers in the North.

But he said the territory has obtained sample copies of all other provincial and territorial health care cards to be kept with the mobile vaccine units so that the units can determine valid health care cards, “in case someone’s trying to fake that.”

The territory is also working on ways to find supporting evidence that someone is actually employed.

“All that is being sorted out by the team right now to try and figure out how to keep everybody safe,” Streicker said.

He added the incident was shocking, but that they don’t think it will happen again.

“We just didn’t anticipate that anyone would go to this length to effectively deceive the team to get vaccinated, and I think we all felt pretty offended at the whole thing,” Streicker said.

“But we will put in place additional procedures … I don’t imagine that this is going to repeat itself.”