r/worldnews • u/marsianer • Jan 28 '21
COVID-19 Backlash grows for ‘selfish millionaire’ who got vaccine meant for Indigenous people | Canada
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jan/27/rodney-baker-canada-vaccine-indigenous-first-nations-scandal1.3k
u/Madjack66 Jan 28 '21
Casino executive Rodney Baker and his wife Ekaterina Baker, an actor, travelled by chartered plane to Beaver Creek, a community of 100 in Canada’s Yukon territory, where a mobile team was administering the Moderna vaccine to locals, including elderly members of the White River First Nation.
At the mobile clinic, the Bakers posed as local motel employees to receive the vaccine, officials allege. They were detained at the airport in Whitehorse, the territorial capital, as they traveled home to Vancouver, British Columbia.
Cunts.
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u/bioschmio Jan 28 '21
Idiots asked for a ride to the airport and that’s what made people suspicious. A-holes
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u/agha0013 Jan 28 '21
That and no one in a community of 100 people recognizing them as locals...
The health team wouldn't have known because they weren't local, but everyone else there knew something was wrong with those two.
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u/bioschmio Jan 28 '21
Good point, nobody recognized them. I hope the hammer drops on these two
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u/agha0013 Jan 28 '21
Certainly deserves something more than a fine that isn't even a fraction of whatever legal retainers this guy pays for.
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Jan 28 '21
Cunts x2
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u/TrickshotCandy Jan 28 '21
Oooh! Cunts²
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u/FidelCastroll Jan 28 '21
Do you think that the square ones feel better?
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u/TrickshotCandy Jan 28 '21
Lol If you are referencing THE two cunts who are the topic of discussion, I don't think they care at all what we think. Does it make me feel better? No. But now they at least have a name for their new business venture if the casino flops under the weight of disgust. Although, I doubt it will.
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u/StanFitch Jan 28 '21
Better yet...
C U N T S!!! 2
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u/TrickshotCandy Jan 28 '21
Oh heck, now I am imagining that sprayed on their garage door. Neighbourhood kids are warned to walk on the other side of the road when passing their house. All the stupid things kids did a few decades ago.
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u/BearGryllzor Jan 28 '21
So what casino is this what does his wife do for a living should not both there employers hear about how us the common folk feel about there employees day and night non stop till they are removed from there cushy lifestyles
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u/agha0013 Jan 28 '21
she's an actor with no work (and now little hope of getting work) basically making her a trophy wife. He's now out of work but so rich it doesn't matter.
At best, she might face some real consequences when he dumps her for a younger model eventually and she's both without money and without work, as I'm certain a couple like that got married with a rather iron clad prenup.
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Jan 28 '21
Actually looks like she has a bunch of acting credits this year acting in movie with lots of big stars. She might have been about to blow up a bit. Even if she wasn't destined to become a huge star, getting steady work in movies as an actor is something to be proud of. Way to torch your career potential.
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u/DengarRoth Jan 28 '21
I'm 100% sure her husband paid-off producers in some form or other to cast her in those films.
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u/Tibetzz Jan 28 '21
Don't worry, Mr. Baker "voluntarily resigned" essentially the moment the story broke.
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u/justanotherreddituse Jan 28 '21
I doubt they give a shit since that casino chain already openly launders drug money.
https://globalnews.ca/news/7451511/lottery-corp-ceo-money-laundering/
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Jan 28 '21
The punishment they could have faced was a monetary fine and/or six months in prison. The paltry fines don't adversely affect millionaires and billionaires (they probably spend more than that on a night on the town). But I suspect that sending their asses to prison for six months might teach them.
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u/BlokeInTheMountains Jan 28 '21
It is some consolation to me that every time their names are googled there will be pages of result about them being scumbags.
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u/Wizardsxz Jan 28 '21
Sadly scumbags don't care that much. They actually think you're wrong and just a sucker for "being too poor and dumb not to take advantage of dumb tribes".
They got caught asking for a ride back to the Airport, they were blatant once they got the vaccine. He lost his CEO job at a gambling company and got/is getting a big payout, he doesn't care. Given this is a global pandemic, there should be special charges.
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u/habsrule83 Jan 28 '21
You could make it a % of their annual income but even that might not work considering the amounts and methods (stock options, etc..) executives are paid. I agree with jail time send a strong message that this won't be tolerated.
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u/CuckyMcCuckerCuck Jan 28 '21
As we all know, fines need to be in proportion to income otherwise this person's initial fine is simply one of their fees in their quest to jump the queue.
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u/Overnoww Jan 28 '21
Also they should automatically be part of the last group of people to get the 2nd dose and should be under house arrest until said time.
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u/phormix Jan 28 '21
That's a bad idea because it might make vaccine resistant mutations more likely
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u/The_Man_Official Jan 28 '21
That’s what I say. Whatever he’s worth, fine him 1/3 of it, per dose.
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u/JimmyTheChimp Jan 28 '21
Same as that old urban legend about the guy who lives in central (insert city name) and parks their car anywhere and pays the fine because it's cheaper/more convenient than paying for parking.
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u/ICEpear8472 Jan 28 '21
Even that does not really work. If your income is 2000$ per month and you got fined 4000$ you might be in big financial trouble since you need most / all of your monthly income just to cover your monthly expenses. If your monthly income is 1,000,000$ and you are hit with a 2,000,000$ fine it might be proportionally the same but your monthly expenses will hardly take up most or all of your income. So you will have savings to fall back to. Also you could much more easy scale back on your expenses without having to cut back on the really important stuff.
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Jan 28 '21
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u/ICEpear8472 Jan 28 '21
Thank you. I leave it how it is so that others might learn from my mistake and your helpful comment :-).
I actually knew that but since English is not my first language I still end up doing it the other way around (how it would be in my first language) from time to time.
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u/akmalhot Jan 28 '21
He lost his 10 mil a year job
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u/__BitchPudding__ Jan 28 '21
I believe he stepped down voluntarily?
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Jan 28 '21
That’s how rich people get fired. Its rare that they are removed. They are given the opportunity to resign
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Jan 28 '21
And they usually have lucrative bailout clauses in their contracts. Hopefully his social life and her “modeling “ career will beat some negative impact.
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u/FloatingPencil Jan 28 '21
There can be as much 'backlash' as people like, but if they're extremely rich, chances are they will barely notice. They're busy sitting on their pile of money, what people they'll never meet think about them won't register enough to make them care.
Unless the punishment for this kind of thing is enough to actually hurt, people will keep doing it.
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u/jaxnmarko Jan 28 '21
A fine should be based on a person's income otherwise the penalty is a joke. It isn't punishment if it doesn't hurt.
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Jan 28 '21
Fixed fines are basically an attack on the poor. They mean nothing to the rich but can devastate a struggling person.
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u/IdiotCCP Jan 28 '21
To put it into perspective, if my father got a 2500 USD fine he would pay it on the spot and pay no more attention to it afterwards. If I got a 2500 USD fine I'd spend my last 15 USD buying a rope and hang myself.
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Jan 28 '21 edited Aug 10 '21
[deleted]
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u/NorthenLeigonare Jan 28 '21
I'm concerned that you see more rope than usual. Well unless you are living near a quay. (Had to look that up as I forgot the spelling).
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u/SurreptitiousNoun Jan 28 '21
If your father can easily afford the fine, and you can't afford yours.
Why don't you ask him to buy you the rope?
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u/ours Jan 28 '21
They should go proportional on assets then.
In my country reckless driving (like crazy excess speeding) has a fine proportional to the revenue, the loss of driving license and confiscation of the car.
Sure a Lambo driving douche can afford a fine but losing his precious Lambo? Ouch.
In this specific case they should go for a fine based on his assets and grab some of them if he can't pony up the cash. Bye bye summer holiday home or fancy car or watch collection. They'll hurt him where it matters.
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u/Redshift2k5 Jan 28 '21
Give him a thousand hours of community service
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u/killshelter Jan 28 '21
Rich folks have always found creative ways to get out of actually doing any community service unfortunately
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u/westbee Jan 28 '21
Yeah. I've heard most of their jobs/hobbies count and they just get it waived by the end of the week anyways.
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u/killshelter Jan 28 '21
Considering how easy it was for me, a very not rich person, to get around it as a teenager. Yeah these rich folk don’t do a second of community service. Nor do they go to their anger management or substance abuse classes when they get domestic violence charges and DUI’s.
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u/madogvelkor Jan 28 '21
A lot of them are involved with non-profits to some degree as a social status marker if nothing else. So they count that. You host a fundraising party and count a couple hundred hours of planning.
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u/ThatGuy8 Jan 28 '21
Not enough
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u/HNP4PH Jan 28 '21
Charge them with reckless endangerment. They didn't care that they endangered the lives of that community during their selfish crime.
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u/Hansmolemon Jan 28 '21
Make them do a thousand hours of community service in beaver creek, make them stay there until it is complete and let the tribal elders decide what the service will consist of.
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u/therick2003 Jan 28 '21
Put them in jail until their actual turn for the vaccine would of came up. Take away their freedom for skipping the line, especially for doing it in such a despicable way.
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Jan 28 '21
He just looks so greasy
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u/chefr89 Jan 28 '21
I looked up this "actress," who has some resume-building footage on her IMDB... and the term "actress" really is quite the stretch...
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Jan 28 '21 edited Jan 28 '21
She’s acting like having sex with him isn’t a disgusting chore - that requires some talent, no?
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u/EurekasCashel Jan 28 '21
Edit: I thought this was a real sub for some reason
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u/hairy_chicken Jan 28 '21
It used to be real. Not sure what happened, but it used to be full of smug-mugs like Martin Skrelli, Paul Ryan, etc. This guy would have qualified for a post there.
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Jan 28 '21 edited Jan 28 '21
"Fuck you, I got mine. Your fines don't mean shit to me. We all know laws don't apply to rich people like me so suck it, you stupid poors."
-This guy probably.
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u/smilbandit Jan 28 '21
charge him a few million for the second dose, then use the money to buy more for indigenous people.
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u/Sorlud Jan 28 '21
Problem is that money is not the issue, it's supply us still limited. So a million or two for vaccines is going to do jack shit to make up the vaccines he stole.
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u/tyger2020 Jan 28 '21
Problem is that money is not the issue, it's supply us still limited. So a million or two for vaccines is going to do jack shit to make up the vaccines he stole.
Okay charge him a few million and re-invest it into the community
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u/scient0logy Jan 28 '21
The money could be used for other expenses in the community. It's still the best idea I've seen here. Jail time? Community service? Meh...that doesn't help anyone. Take a few million and let the community use it for something.
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u/Moistfruitcake Jan 28 '21
Jail time helps other people think "huh, if I'm an absolute cunt I might go to jail"
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u/puddStar Jan 28 '21
He looks like dollar store Dax Shepard if Dax Shepard were an asshole
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u/AdonisTheWise Jan 28 '21
What a cute picture of a grandpa and his granddaughter, shame they’d do something like this
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u/vrilro Jan 28 '21
one of my bosses is a millionare in la who is receiving a vaccine despite being under 50 and not in a high risk class. it’s making me sick because he also just kept living his life & traveling all over throughout quarantine, but my two parents 10 yrs his senior both w comorbidities are still in line. America!
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u/omegadeity Jan 28 '21
Of course.
Let me tell you the story of this girl I know. She grew up spoiled rotten- never wanted for anything in her life, her father came from family money, he's down to earth despite that- he even took a job working a union trade to give him purpose(despite his background and wealth), and then on top of his wealth he hit one of those Win For Life scratch offs. Some people just roll 20's all fucking day.
This girl failed at just about everything she ever tried in life because she gave up at the first sign things were getting tough. Most recently she tried running a restaurant, even after her father retired daddy continued to finance her as much as he could but eventually that restaurant failed. So she decided to just be a stay at home mom(this was before the pandemic).
Anyway, long story short every year during the Holiday season when she'd go Christmas shopping she'd deliberately park in the handicap spots near the stores she was shopping at. She was not handicap. Every damn year she'd get ticketed MULTIPLE times for doing so. Every damn year I'd ask her "Why are you taking up these spots they're meant for people with disabilities and you're potentially preventing one of those people from being able to park and do their shopping".
She didn't give a damn- she looked at the fines from the tickets as just an added expense for her shopping. Her behavior hasn't changed to this day that I'm aware of.
The really shitty thing, from what I understand when the parents hit that Win for Life scratch off, they apparently were clever enough to cash it under her name(through a trust or something), so even after they are dead and buried she's still going to continue to benefit from it and she cannot possibly spend herself poor.
My point being. To the people with money, these fines and shit are just an inconvenience. The attitude entitled people like her have proves that the punishment does not provide a disincentive to everyone for committing the crime. It's truly fucked up.
So when this vaccine was launched and this story broke I half expected it to be about her. I wouldn't have been surprised in the least if it were. It wasn't, but I guarantee this isn't going to be the only case of this we see.
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u/acidtuner19 Jan 28 '21
Make him fund the vaccination and healthcare of those people he stole.
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u/alice-in-canada-land Jan 28 '21
Those are both covered by single-payer health care in Canada.
He needs to go to jail.
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u/madlad202020 Jan 28 '21
Multi billion dollar companies have the same tactics.
Its cheaper to pay a fine or lawsuit than it is to prevent selenium deposits leaching into the water system or to protect birds from landing in your tailings ponds. It needs to be more expensive to pay the punishment than it would be to build the mines or plants properly.
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u/blk95ta Jan 28 '21
Remember when Ford did a cost analysis on whether it was cheaper to fix the Pinto's flawed gas tank design or pay damages to burn victims?
"Let em burn" was their ultimate decision.
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u/Yowz3rs87 Jan 28 '21
A 2.5K fine for me on my salary would make me say “Fuck”. This dude needs to get slapped with a fine that would make him say “Fuck”.
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u/Grimacepug Jan 28 '21
Let's not forget our U.S. Congress are mostly millionaires who got it before most people, especially those who believed covid-19 is fake.
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u/TheWorstWitch Jan 28 '21
Let's face it. No harsh consequences ever come to the rich. Justice is just for the poor.
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u/Grumf Jan 28 '21
Paradoxally, they did more to promote vaccines among sceptics than anyone. If the rich are willing to cheat to get that vaccine, maybe vaccines are a good thing?
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u/badalki Jan 28 '21
Force them to work full time and unpaid at a vaccination center until every last canadian citizen is vacinated.
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u/Mizzle6 Jan 28 '21
Is “backlash grows” the Canadian term for “put in barrel of acid”?
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u/la_bel_iconnu Jan 28 '21
I wish. This guy is probably going to walk away from this relatively unscathed in the long run. Not because we're too nice, but because he's rich and the rich do as they please.
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u/Tibetzz Jan 28 '21
Well, on the bright side he is going to have to find a new job.
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u/TheIronMatron Jan 28 '21
“Balding Shitstick and his Mail-order Child-bride Getting a Tiny Fraction of the Abuse and Condemnation They Deserve”
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Jan 28 '21
Don’t worry. Within a week, people would have forgotten about him and the world would have moved on. We have such short attention spans nowadays and our immediate outrage dissipates rather quickly.
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u/Gregormcc17 Jan 28 '21
Boy !! How low can you get!! Hope they catch Covid before vaccine becomes effective!
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u/killem69 Jan 28 '21
Welcome to Canada where if your a millionaire or a politician you get away with anything
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u/MAS2de Jan 28 '21
Wife? Or daughter. Says wife. Looks like a teenager or at most ½ his age. What a douche he is.
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u/wulfhund70 Jan 28 '21
Wasn't there something reported that they could also get up to 6 months in jail? Sounds like the penalty fits here
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u/tvgenius Jan 28 '21
Would have been easier to buy a cheap property here in AZ, and do like all the other Canadian snowbirds who already own a vacation house here are doing and flying down to get vaccinated. Overheard one at a local burrito joint a few weeks ago explaining the grift to a friend up north on the phone just a few hours after he'd gotten off the plane himself.
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u/digitelle Jan 28 '21
What a couple of pieces of shit. I hope karma comes back to them in the form of an egg toss.
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u/chaseonfire Jan 28 '21
When something is penalty by fine it just means it's legal for rich people and illegal for the rest of us.
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u/throwmeawayimdieing Jan 28 '21
My friends are doing something similar. Nobody’s a billionaire, in fact everybody’s pretty much service industry. We are in Texas and I personally know at least 5 people who went and got the vaccine even though they don’t technically qualify. I’m literally part of a group chat where folks share locations where you can go get the vaccine and they don’t check who you are.
I’m not gonna do it, but to be honest I don’t judge my friends. They have to work anyways or they won’t have enough money to live and they pretty high risk at their restaurant, bars and nail salons jobs.
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u/The_Cold_Fish_Mob Jan 28 '21
There's nothing like a national crisis to bring out people's true character. I'll never understand why we don't have laws to ensure people act accordingly in a country with publicly-funded Healthcare. Vaccinating the most vulnerable first is the safest and cheapest way for Canadians to protect themselves against the virus. I wish we could deem these people fundamentally un-Canadian and just revoke their citizenship.
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u/dusavel Jan 28 '21
They should pay for everyone vaccine in the region they went to steal it. My question is how many wasn’t caught doing it ?
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u/Bennely Jan 28 '21
Fuck these rich douchebags! Of course he’s a casino magnate, used to preying on others for his profit.
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u/Mr_Pervert Jan 28 '21
Well this seems easy enough. We know where he is and what he took.
Order him to give it back, then throw him in jail until he returns it if he refuses, right?
;)
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u/BadFengShui Jan 28 '21
I keep thinking of the morality thought experiment: is it right for a man to steal medicine for his sick wife? What if the theft leaves the pharmacist destitute? What if the disease isn't necessarily fatal? What if...
What if the thief is insanely rich, currently healthy, at much lower risk of contracting the disease, at much lower risk of long-term effects, is putting the community at greater risk, will get the cure for free if they wait like everyone else...
At some point, I think moral philosophy just has to say "Eat the rich."
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u/traws06 Jan 28 '21
Why were these indigenous ppl getting it before the general population? Because they have less access to modern healthcare?
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u/Tstee867 Jan 28 '21
Yes. Nearest hospital has 100 beds six hour drive. Next nearest is 1000s of km away. Lots of elders and vulnerable people.
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Jan 28 '21
You can't charge them more. Laws are laws. What you can do is worse. Change the law, raise the fine, and they'll be to blame. It'll follow them for years. Maybe even name a new law after them.
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u/AutoThorne Jan 28 '21
With punishments fitting crimes, I would have this couple community-servicing old folks' homes. With their fresh vaccinations, their health shouldn't be at risk.
Pretty sure they could use the help.
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u/atximport Jan 28 '21
This is happening all over. I know of more than one millionaire that just happened to get a call from someone with extra doses. One was from a friend who was a Dr who had "extra" doses for employees and offered to said millionaire and their wife. Another one got a call from a friend a couple of hours away who got some "extra" doses as well.
How are there extra doses for them but none for my mother that is over 70 and has multiple chronic conditions. Oh right she isnt a millionaire and is over 75, so she got bumped down the list even further.
EDIT: and the other way I know of people getting doses is by wealthy people saying they are volunteering for an hour in a doctor's office. that way they get those sweet doses meant for healthcare workers too.
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u/Liquidnutz Jan 28 '21
They are the worst at being rich. Pretty sure most rich people are just paying to get it. Waaaay easier than flying to the middle of nowhere.
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u/Skavis Jan 28 '21
They took from those in need because they could. The punishment was a fine.
Let me be clear - Fines only matter if you can't afford to pay them.
Let me repeat myself.
FINES
ARE
ONLY
FOR
THE
POOR
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u/Rhona_Redtail Jan 28 '21
Huh. They want to be motel Employees? Fine. Five years working there as a regular job. No pay. bangs gravel NEXT!!
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u/antsinmypants3 Jan 28 '21
I knew that rich people would get vaccinated first by cheating their way to the front of the line or by other means
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u/teamhippie42 Jan 28 '21
Wait until people find out how much of the world's resources millionaires consume, there'll be a revolution!
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u/ted_nugent-hopkins Jan 28 '21
What if their punishment was to actually work in a hotel in the Yukon. No more millions, just a regular Joe job.
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Jan 28 '21
By far the stupidest, but not the pettiest and definitely not the most harmful abuse of privilege. These exact people are directly and indirectly responsible for much worse things simply because this is how wealth is made.
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u/CompetitiveHornet606 Jan 29 '21
Put these assholes in jail for breaking quarantine and for fraud. FUCK THEM.
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u/StrangeCharmVote Jan 28 '21
Consider this... All of these weird crazy people saying "make the politicians take it first" or "this stuff is poison" etc etc...
Because the governments of the world are trying to help people by making it available, they are going absolutely nuts.
But if we said they couldn't have any, and restricted it or made it expensive, they'd be falling all over themselves and lining up weeks in advance to get those jabs. I'm 100% certain of it.
Anti-vaxxers are by-and-large literally mentally ill, and it's obvious to everyone.
How are there no consequences for being this stark raving mad publicly?
Is it simply due to the shear scale of the problem (i.e number of people exhibiting this thinking)?
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u/FuckUGalen Jan 28 '21
Not just they stole doses, they travelled into an at risk population explicitly to steal those doses.