The Minister of Immigration failed to respond last night to repeated requests for a comment on a decision to revoke the work permit of a Canadian who was involved in an argument with another MP.

Meanwhile, the Opposition United Bermuda Party waded into the controversy yesterday, voicing concern at a “dictatorial temper” emerging in Bermuda.

Shadow Minister of Labour and Immigration Trevor Moniz said there was a spreading air of intimidation across the Island to inhibit free speech.

Yesterday The Royal Gazette revealed that Curtis Macleod will leave the Island on Monday after he was involved in a row with Warwick North Central MP George Scott on a Hamilton building site in October.

It is alleged words such as “racist”, “ignorant” and “uneducated” were used and Mr. Scott’s children also insulted by Mr. Macleod, who denies saying anything about the children.

Mr. Macleod said he did not know who Mr. Scott was when he encountered him on the site and asked him to leave three times. He admitted reacting angrily and calling the MP a “racist, uneducated, ignorant a**hole” but said he only made the statement after he was racially provoked.

He alleged that the MP when asked to leave for a third time 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 Bermudian. You do not know what it is like to be a black man. You are a black man with a white man’s heart.”

This week Mr. Scott denied making that comment and alleged that Mr. Macleod insulted him and also called his children uneducated during the argument. He also said that no where else in the world would a person be able to treat an MP with such disrespect.

Mr. Scott said he did make a complaint to the Department of Immigration who then informed Mr. Macleod’s company his work permit was being revoked and the company could have all work permits revoked for allowing senior managers act in an abusive manner.

After a three month battle to keep Mr. Macleod on the Island the company was informed this week that he would have to leave.

On Thursday the Department of Immigration was asked to comment on the incident but failed to do so before the paper went to press.

Yesterday, the Minister of Immigration and Labour, Derrick Burgess, was asked three times through the Department of Communications and Information and the Permanent Secretary to respond to seven questions but failed to do so.

He was asked why Mr. Macleod’s work permit was revoked, if disrespect towards a Government MP was something that could or should lead to a work permit being revoked and if there was a set of guidelines that guest workers should follow to ensure they did not have their permits revoked.

He was also asked to respond to Mr. Macleod’s claim that he did not get a “fair shake” and that the Department had not listened to his side of the story.

Mr. Moniz said his party was concerned about an “emergence of a dictatorial temper” in Bermuda.

He said: “In the past few months, people who have expressed contrary remarks or views about members of this Government, and in one case a decision taken by this Government, have lost their jobs, with two of the individuals, expatriate workers — being forced to leave the Island.

“These incidents on their own would be troubling enough, but taken together they constitute a developing pattern of behaviour that must concern all Bermudians who are interested in the health of our democracy.

“It is our view that there is a spreading air of intimidation across the Island to inhibit people from expressing their views, to keep them in line.”

He argued freedom of speech was a key pillar to a democracy and it was the Government’s duty to uphold freedom of speech.

He said: “This morning the Finance Minister mentioned that Bermuda has ‘a reputation to protect’ We agree absolutely with the statement. The success of our economy depends on our reputation.

“Therefore we implore the Government to look at its own behaviour, to look at the signals it is sending abroad. Right now, you are doing Bermuda no favours.”