This is a timeline of how the Curtis Macleod controversy has unfolded.

October 26, 2006, Government MP George Scott, who is also a Bermuda Industrial Union official, turned up on the Church Street Global Construction site with Louis Somner, another BIU official. They allegedly did not identify themselves before talking with workers and asking for a junior mechanic. Mr. Scott and Mr. Macloed got into a racially-charged argument.

Mr. Scott gave a written complaint about Mr. Macleod to Minister of Immigration, Derrick Burgess.

October 31 Global Construction received a letter from The Department of Immigration stating the Minister might revoke all the company’s work permits “on the grounds that you have permitted and/or created an environment where your senior managers conduct themselves in an abusive manner which the Minister considers unacceptable”. The letter stated that Mr. Macleod told the MP to get off the construction site saying: “I don’t give a f*** who you are. You are uneducated and your children are too.”

The letter also stated that when Mr. Scott said he had never seen other managers display open contempt for workers Mr. Macleod replied: “You are a racist.”>

November 14 Global’s vice-president Dennis DeSilva backed Mr. Macleod in a hand-delivered letter to the Department. In the letter he said Mr. Macleod alleged he overheard Mr. Scott say: “This is a white man’s company. Is he hiring any black Bermudians? Cos you know how the white man is.”

It added that Mr. Macleod found the comments offensive and twice requested the men take the conversation off the property. The letter went on to say Mr. Macleod claimed the second time Mr. Scott was asked to leave he said: “I don’t have to move. This is Bermuda and you are a foreigner. You are not Bermudian.”

Mr. DeSilva says in the letter that Mr. Macleod requested the men leave a third time and told them they did not know him or his country of origin.

At this point it is alleged that the MP said: “I know who you are. Your name is Curtis and I have heard you talking on Elbow Beach. You are not from here and you don’t know what it is like to be a black man. You are a black man with a white man’s heart.”

The letter adds: “It was only at this point that Mr. Macleod responded in a defensive and frustrated manner, but at no time did he make any comments regarding anyone’s children and their lack of education.’’

However in a separate submission, Mr. Macleod does admit that during the argument he said: “Listen you racist, uneducated, ignorant a**hole this was a diplomatic conversation asking for you to leave my site and since you could not say anything educated you had to turn it into a racist thing, you ignorant racist.

“Now get the f*** off my site before I remove you.” The letter was signed by two Bermudians who witnessed the incident.

December 28 Global Construction was informed that Immigration Minister Derrick Burgess had decided to revoke Mr. Macleod’s permit and he was to leave the Island by February 1$>

January 4, 2007 <$>An appeal against the Minister’s decision was filed by defence lawyer Richard Horseman.

February 15 Mr. Macleod was told his appeal had been rejected and came The Royal Gazette.

Februar5<$> Mr. Scott denied making any racial comments but said he did refuse to move as he was standing on a public sidewalk.

Mr. Scott told The Royal Gate <$>that Mr. Macleod acted in an unprofessional and hostile manner throughout their discussion and did not give him any chance to identify himself as a member of Government or union representative. He said: “He approached us first in an unprofessional manner. I tried to give him my card but he crossed his arms and acted like a spoilt child.

“I am a member of Government. Nowhere else in the world would he be able to get up in the face of an MP. If I was another staff member of his he could have got away with it.

“I said ‘let me give you my business card so you can see who you are talking to’ but he crossed his arms and did not want to hear anything. After he said what he did about my children I said ‘you do not know who I am, but I will see you off this Island’.

February 18 The Minister of Immigration responded to repeated requests for information about the incidents and the grounds on which Mr. Macleod’s permit was revoked. He said that all the proper procedures and laws were followed by the Department and the permit had been revoked “as a result of unsatisfactory character and conduct&21;.

February 19 The BIU held a press conference and said they had received numerous complaint about Mr. Macleod’s behaviour and disrespect towards Bermudian workers and went to investigate the matter on October 26. The officials also said one of the Bermudians who signed the Global Construction letter supporting Mr. Macleod’s version of events had been intimidated into doing so.<$>

February 20<$> Lawyer Richard Horseman announced that Mr. Macleod will appeal the Cabinet and Minister’s decision to revoke his permit on the grounds that he did not know the full case against him, that workers had complained to the BIU, and could not make proper representations to the Minister or Board.

February 21 The Bermudian who signed Global Construction’s letter as a witness to the event e to The Royal Gazette <$>and denied he was intimidated into signing the letter - as claimed by the BIU. He said he stood behind Mr. Macleod’s version of events.