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By Keith Archibald Forbes (see About Us) exclusively for Bermuda Online
To refer to this webfile, please use "bermuda-online.org/canada" as your Subject
Bermuda and Canada have been partners in
history, commerce, culture, education, tourism and trade since Bermuda was settled by
accident in 1609 and by design in 1612. See Bermuda History with the Old and New
Worlds since 1500.
Bermuda's Premier and Minister of Finance, the Hon. Paula Cox, was born in Canada. There are more than 3,000 Canadian residents in Bermuda while 800 Bermudians a year are educated in Canada.
The Canadian Commission to Bermuda publishes its Canada Bermuda
site in English and French. The
Canadian Consulate General at 1251
Avenue of the
Because Canada does not have a tax on salaries of Canadians domiciled in Bermuda like the USA has a tax on its citizens in Bermuda, or charge a tax on investment income for non-residents like the USA does, good investments of all kinds in Canada are attractive for expatriates and Bermudians. Mutual funds based in Canada are also attractive when compared to Bermuda and elsewhere. Insurance rates of Canadian companies may be attractive to those working in Bermuda.
Canadian visitors to Bermuda on vacation seem to like going from a hundreds or thousands of times bigger province but with a hugely smaller population density per square mile to a tiny (21 square miles) island with hundreds or thousands more people per square mile. Visitors should dress conservatively. Bathing suits, abbreviated tops, and short shorts should be worn only at the beach or pool. It is an offence to appear in public without a shirt or in a bathing suit top.
Most Canadian visitors to Bermuda do not experience problems. But there have been problems, including on July 3, 1996 a 17 year old Canadian visitor, Rebecca Middleton - see separate heading below - was kidnapped, raped, sodomized, tortured and murdered. A Canadian Senator was robbed and beaten. In 2005, four Canadian women were robbed and beaten. Canadian visitors are advised not to accept food or drink from strangers or casual acquaintances, as these may be drugged. Use of Rohypnol and other "date rape" drugs has been confirmed by authorities and reported in the local media. Rapes in Bermuda have the lowest conviction record in the western world, only 2%. Ensure personal belongings, passports and other travel documents are secure at all times. Avoid deserted beaches and unpopulated areas, especially at night.
It is hoped Canada will soon want to research and public modern statistics - as was once the case decades earlier - with particular regard to imports/exports, mutual tourism, academic info, case studies of Canadian businesses in Bermuda and vice versa, etc.
Once, the Canadian connection once was hugely impactive in Bermuda. Then, Canadian exports to Bermuda once exceeded US exports to Bermuda, largely the result of the Commonwealth Preferential Tariff. This stopped in the early 1970s. Between them, Saguenay Shipping and Air Canada dominated the trade then between Canada and Bermuda. They are recommended as resources for a then-and-now comparison.
It is believed Canada now supplies less than 10% of all Bermuda's tourists, less than 30% of all Bermuda's imports. Today's Bermuda-based resources will reveal the amount of goods now shipped or flown to Bermuda from Canada. Air Canada still sends the bulk of Canadian cargoes and tourists, but an new service from Canada starts in May 2010. Bermuda' Government's Department of Education will have figures and stats on Bermudians who have benefited from being sent to school, college and university in Canada. Bermuda Customs should be able to provide a breakdown for the yearly total value of FOB Canadian exports to Bermuda (perhaps compared to the total for other countries). Bermuda Government's Dept of Tourism will have a yearly total number of Canadian visitors. Bermuda Government's Ministry of Finance will have the economic impact of Canadian Work Permit holders in Bermuda and impact of the upcoming 2010 Tax Information Exchange Agreement exchanged between Canada and Bermuda.
http://www.international.gc.ca/world/embassies/factsheets/bermuda-FS-en.pdf . Says Bermuda, erroneously, has a "Prime Minister."
| Bermuda size & population | 20.75 (Twenty point seven five) square miles in total. 64,268 residents |
| Resident population density per square mile | 3,097 (Three thousand, zero nine seven). Third highest in the world |
| Government Code of Conduct for legislators | None. There is a voluntary code, with no legislative teeth. It is ignored by some. No equivalent at all of the UK's Ethical Standards in Public Life Act. |
| Number in Cabinet | 13. Same number as USA, equivalent in Bermuda to 0.63 (Point six three) per square mile. They have "The Honorable" before their name. |
| Number of elected legislators in House of Assembly and their salaries | 36. Equivalent to 1.93 (One point nine three) per square mile. They have "MP" for Member of Parliament after their name. If they are also Cabinet Ministers, they earn well in excess of $100,000 a year, plus unlimited expenses. |
| Average number of registered voters (electors) per member of parliament | In November 2010 the average was one thousand one hundred and ninety four (1,194). Contrast this with no fewer than 72,810 and no more than 80,433 per member of parliament in the UK in 2011 and approximately the same in the USA per congressperson and Canada. |
| Number of appointed politicians in Senate | 11. Equivalent to 0.53 (Point five three) per square mile. They have "Senator" before their name. If they are also Cabinet Ministers, they earn this plus what is shown above under "Number of elected legislators." |
| Number of Government Boards | About 108. All require the approval of the Premier who controls all Public Information. See Bermuda Government Boards separate website shown at the end of this file. |
| Number of Police | About 460, over 20 per square mile. Plus, there are Reserve officers. |
| Number in Bermuda Regiment | 600 members, mostly Bermudian men, mostly part time. Some non-Bermudian men and women from British Commonwealth countries and female Bermudians are serving but on a volunteer basis as conscription regulations do not require enrolment by Bermudian females and non-Bermudian males. Only male Bermudians under a certain age resident in Bermuda are liable to be conscripted, on a selective basis. |
| Registered voters who can participate in a General Election | Total number of registered voters in November 2010 was 42,987, about 59% of the entire resident population. |
| The Bermuda Society |
Between The Progressive Labour Party (PLP) - in Government since 1998 - and United Bermuda Party (UBP) - in Opposition. The PLP remained as the Government by winning 22 seats to the UBP's 14. The UBP lost several key seats.
Quite a few do so. Canadian men and women in other occupations are more numerous in Bermuda's Civil Service and private sector than any other nationality and have the highest professional profile of any non-Bermudian group. They are very welcome but do not have the same freedoms here in residing and working without restrictions as they have elsewhere. Canadians visiting Bermuda on business or vacation or as professional newcomers cannot get Bermuda citizenship or vote or buy real estate at the same price as Bermudians - unless they marry Bermudians. Any children born here are not legally Bermudian unless one parent is Bermudian. Many products are three times more expensive in Bermuda than in Canada.
| Bermuda employment | Bermuda Work Permits |
| Bermuda Cost of Living | Bermuda organizations |
| Bermuda Disabled | Hospitals and Health Support Groups in Bermuda |
| Senior Citizens visiting or local |
Average Population Density is 9 per square mile, compared to Bermuda's 3,400 per square mile.
| Province | Population | Total area, square miles |
Alberta |
2.70 million | 255,287 |
| 3.72 million | 365,948 | |
| 1.11 million | 250,947 | |
New Brunswick |
738,173 | 28,355 |
Newfoundland |
551,792 | 156,649 |
Nova Scotia |
909,282 | 21,425 |
Ontario |
10.75 million | 412,581 |
Prince Edward
Island |
134,557 | 2,185 |
Quebec |
7.14 million | 594,660 |
| 990,237 | 251,866 | |
Northwest
Territories |
39,862 | 503,951 |
Yukon
Territory |
30,766 | 186,661 |
In September, 1946 the Canadian
carrier Trans Canada Air Lines (the forerunner of what is now Air Canada) sent a 5 hour
survey flight aloft from Montreal to Bermuda, to determine the practicality of such a
service. On board an early, not pressurized and noisy version of the Canadair North Star
passenger air liner was a party of Trans Canada senior executives including the airline's
President, Mr. Gordon R. McGregor. It had been decided by the Board of TCA that the time
was not yet ripe to begin scheduled services to Bermuda, at least not without permission
to carry passengers to Bermuda from the United States, which could only be obtained by
inter government negotiation. But in 1948, it formally began its Montreal Toronto Bermuda
route. At the same time, it established for itself and other airlines then serving Bermuda
the air to ground communications systems in Bermuda, Goose Bay in Labrador and Gander in
Newfoundland then so essential for transatlantic safety of air passengers. Today, Air
Canada plays a major role in Canada Bermuda business and tourism. It is the British
Commonwealth's most frequent 'flag carrier' and serves Bermuda on a year round daily
basis.
Its 25th anniversary celebrations in late 2006 were heralded by a gala dinner dance. More than 200 guests attended the event at the Holiday Inn Hotel in Toronto, including over thirty members and friends of the Pembroke Community Club’s (PCC) Terpsichorean Dance Group. The celebration had the personal blessing of the Mayor of Toronto, David Miller, and Premier of Ontario Province, Mr. Dalton McGuinty. Its first meeting was held in Scarborough, Ontario, initially as the Bermuda Social Club, with their first activity a Guy Fawkes party in November 1981. Its success helped them decide to change the name to the Bermudian Canadian Association. Its logo is a Bermuda Moongate encircled by the name of the association set against a background of palm trees with long tails flying over what looks like a lush green and white depiction of Horseshoe Beach. The Bermuda and Canadian flags fly on each side of the Moongate.
|
Englishman Henry May was a passenger on a French vessel commanded by a Monsieur de la Barbotiere. It left Laguna, on Spanish held Hispaneola, on November 30, 1593. Seventeen days later, the crew thought they were well beyond the dreaded "Isle of Devils" of Bermuda and got their "wine of height." At midnight on December 16, the ship struck a reef off Bermuda and only twenty six, including May and Barbotiere, reached shore. With carpenters' tools and tackle for cedar trees, they built a seaworthy craft of 18 tons and caulked her seams with lime and turtle oil. They caught birds, turtles and wild hogs as food as castaways. |
On May 11, 1594 they sailed their Bermuda made craft to Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, in 9 days. May got to England two months later, to recount his experiences in Bermuda. But Bermuda was left uninhabited while the Marquis de la Roche established a short lived French colony on Sable Island off Nova Scotia in 1598
French explorer le
Sieur de Champlain (Samuel Champlain de Brouage) sighted Bermuda in 1600. He coasted
near the South Shore and carried away impressions of high land (the hills were then
crowned by forests). He wrote of a "mountainous Island difficult to approach from the
dangers that surround it. It almost always rains there and thunders so often it seems as
if heaven and earth were about to meet. The sea is tempestuous and the waves as high as
mountains." In 1603 French explorer Pierre Du Gua de Monts was the first
European to establish a municipality in Canada. He obtained a monopoly on Acadian commerce
when he established Port Royal, now Annapolis Royal, in Nova Scotia in 1605.
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In 1608, Champlain founded Quebec, courted Indian traders and imported French missionaries. In 1748, British regular troops, with Canadian and New England militia, seized the French fortress of Louisbourg in Nova Scotia. |
Signed in 2010. Bermuda's appeal to Canadian corporations as a base for their captive insurance companies has grown since this was ratified. That was the clear conclusion of members of the 25-strong Bermuda delegation in attendance at the 2010 Canadian Captives and Insurance Strategies Summit in Toronto. Under the terms of the TIEA, dividends of foreign affiliates that are resident in Bermuda that are paid to their Canadian parent companies out of the active business income earned in Bermuda are exempt from Canadian taxation. This gives Bermuda some of the advantages enjoyed by countries with a double taxation agreement in force with Canada, such as Barbados. The advantages of Bermuda became apparent when it became obvious rival jurisdictions each had certain restrictions on the business captives could write, while Bermuda did not. In addition, Bermuda was closer to Toronto in terms of being just over two hours flying time away, while reaching the others including Vancouver entailed a journey more than twice as long.
Born and raised near Didsbury, Alberta, a rancher's daughter, she attended the Winnipeg School of Art, then the Ontario College of Art, then further art studies in Berlin and Munich. In Germany she met and married a Spaniard, who was supposed to join her in Canada but disappeared and was assumed to have been killed during the Spanish Civil War. For a while she was employed by the National Film Board in Ottawa. Her work was twice selected for special mention. After her bas-relief Coal Miners, she worked for Canadian National Railways in Montreal. Before arriving in Bermuda from New York she sculptured busts of prominent personalities in Canada and USA. She first came to Bermuda in 1945 as a typical visitor, then in 1946 as a resident artist and sculptor. In 1948, she taught sculpture and clay modeling to youngsters at the Bermuda Art Association’s art school then at the Hamilton Hotel (later demolished by fire). She taught art, created window displays for her employer A.S. Cooper’s, prizewinning flora-based floats for the Bermuda Floral Pageant (Easter Parade) and was a costumes and set designer for local theatrical productions. Then as a non-Bermudian, she got special permission from the Bermuda Government to accept commissions. Her most important Bermuda one were the Anglican Cathedral reredos, altar screen and statues of Christ and 14 saints she created in early 1958. She taught and inspired a generation of Bermuda artists of all complexions, races and backgrounds. She eventually opened her own studio, where she taught adults and children, and was free to work full-time on her sculptures. She was given Bermuda Status (a naturalized Bermudian). She died before she could complete five statues for the Cathedral. In the late Two Canadian sculptors finished off the figures of Christ, His mother and the Saints, for the Cathedral's reredos, left unfinished by artist Byllie Lang.
It is not well-known in Bermuda that during the US Revolutionary War with Britain plans were also put into effect to make Canada the so-called "14th Colony" of the American revolt. The revolutionaries never had any intention of being content with their own colonies, but expected from the outset that their new nation would include the 13 colonies, Florida, Bermuda, the islands of the West Indies, all of the western territories up to the Mississippi River and Canada. The invasion of Canada was led by Colonel Benedict Arnold and Brigadier General Richard Montgomery. Opposing them was Lieutenant General Sir Guy Carleton with a small but disciplined and determined army of British troops, some Indians, Canadians and American loyalists. On November 13, Montgomery occupied Montreal, while Arnold advanced on Quebec. The rebels had expected the Canadians to flock to their colors and join their war against the mother country, but due to the pillaging of the Canadian countryside by American troops, Canada remained loyal. Carleton, after escaping Montreal disguised as a fisherman, now faced Arnold at Quebec. However, Arnold's biggest problem was not Carleton, the city walls, or the King's soldiers, but the fierce Canadian winter and a lack of supplies. Montgomery joined Arnold, and the two decided they would have to attack, lest their entire army freeze or starve to death. During a violent snowstorm in the early hours of December 30/31, Arnold and Montgomery tried to storm Quebec. The British forces repulsed both attacks, inflicting heavy losses on the rebels. General Montgomery was killed and Arnold was wounded. At a cost of only 18 men, the British had inflicted 500 casualties on the rebels. Arnold, however, stubbornly refused to abandon the siege. It was not until May, 1776 when a 10,000-strong British relief force landed that Arnold took the skeletal remains of his army and retreated south to Ft. Ticonderoga with Carleton close at his heels.
In 1973, it was the model for the birth of the Bermuda Housing Corporation, a Bermuda Government quango, now under the Bermuda Housing Act 1980. In 1973, it was charged with the responsibility of ensuring Bermudians have adequate and affordable places to live.
Many Bermudians have graduated from them - see Education in Bermuda. Much of the Department of Education's policy planning owes its origin to Canadian initiatives.
| 1914 to 1915 | Royal Canadian Regiment, 38th Ottawa Battalion, Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF). They arrived in Bermuda somewhat to their disgust as they wanted to fight in Europe. They left for the European theater in 1915. |
| 1915 to 1916 | Draft (10 officers, 98 OR), 77th Battalion, CEF. An offspring from the English speaking Governor General's Foot Guards of Ottawa, an English-speaking regiment. The officer commanding the combined 38th/77th forces was Lieutenant Colonel Douglas Richmond Street. |
| 1916 | 163rd Battalion, CEF. A French speaking unit, originally Les Fusiliers de Sherbrooke, Montreal.. A French speaking unit, originally Les Fusiliers de Sherbrooke, Montreal. |
| 1940 | Winnipeg Grenadiers. Arrived to garrison Bermuda. |
| 1942 | Pictou Highlanders of Canada. Arrived to garrison Bermuda. |
Many Bermudians served in the Canadian Army (or were attached to Canadian Army units), Royal Canadian Navy and Royal Canadian Air Force during the war.
From the very beginning of World War II in 1939 for Britain and Canada, the Royal Canadian Navy established an Anti-Submarine warfare training base in Bermuda, under Royal Navy auspices. (At that time, part of it was at Casemates Barracks, the building which later served as Bermuda's main prison in the Bermuda Royal Navy Dockyard). It spread eastwards to Convict Bay in St. George's Parish, with the establishment in 1944 for one year of HMCS Somers Isle. Royal Canadian Navy ships played a major role in the War of the Atlantic. And when Britain signed its "50 Destroyers for Bases" deal with the United States, once again HM Dockyard in Bermuda and the equivalent in Halifax were "twinned" historically and strategically, as in the first 50 years of the 19th century. Thousands of Royal Navy officers and men were conveyed from Bermuda to Halifax to take over 50 previously mothballed American naval ships.
The trio were designed for a combined human and commodity service to the eastern Caribbean, with 218 passengers apiece in three classes and their holds designed to bring sugar from the Caribbean to Canada. Although they were known as the "Lady boats," they were "sugar ships," named after wives of famous British admirals. In April, 1929, they were joined by two "banana boats." The Lady Somers (after the wife of Admiral Sir George Somers who colonized Bermuda) and Lady Rodney served the western Caribbean and Bermuda with 130 passengers and special refrigerated holds for bananas from Jamaica to Canada. Their introduction increased the frequency of the Bermuda schedule of the Lady boats from fortnightly to weekly.
On their southbound voyages from Montreal or Halifax and Boston, depending on the season, the Lady boats would often bring more than just cargo and passengers for Bermuda. Sometimes they brought water too, for King Edward VII Memorial Hospital. They served Bermuda well until World War II. During World War 2, all these vessels were requisitioned for war service and three were torpedoed and sunk. Two of the original five Canadian "Lady" boats - the Lady Nelson and Lady Rodney - resumed their services from Halifax and Montreal in 1947 to Bermuda and the West Indies and continued until the end of 1952, when the service was discontinued and the ships sold.
They include:
Durham qualified his report with his rationale for choosing Bermuda as the place of exile. His view was that Bermuda, unlike other penal colonies, would not affix a character of moral infamy on them to make them - as they might become in Australia - centers of trouble as political martyrs. Thus they arrived in Bermuda, as the island's first 'political prisoners.' One June 29, 1838, they were herded in chains on board the warship HMS Vestal commanded by Captain Carter, whom Vice Admiral Sir Charles Paget, based in Halifax, Nova Scotia, had appointed to escort the condemned men to Bermuda with a letter to Bermuda's Governor, Sir Stephen Chapman, to explain the circumstances. When they were freed later the same year, several went first to Louisiana, the most French of all American states. The full story of these 'Exiles' may be of considerable interest to French nationals, French speaking Canadians and Americans with French family connections.
The famous Canadian dynasty, the Irving family, has a major offshore corporate base here in Bermuda. A $6 billion empire, it controls huge business concerns in New Brunswick. The 125-year-old dynasty has a number of JD Irving Limited Bermuda-registered entities, and the Island became the final home for company patriarch Kenneth Colin Irving before he passed away in 1992. Since then it has been Mr. Irving's three sons JK, Arthur and Jack, all in their 70s, who have overseen the various elements of the business, which includes media, oil and energy, and forestry. The Irving family is the third richest in Canada.
Among the graves of St. John's Church, Pembroke is that of Bishop Edward Feild (1801-1876), second Bishop of Newfoundland and Bermuda, who died in 1878. In fact, Anglican Bishops of both Newfoundland and Bermuda began in 1839 and lasted for 80 years until 1919. Several Newfoundland families with the surname of Gosling, Harvey and Outerbridge once carried on business and had branches of their families in both places. Plus, the story of the Atlantic fishery involved both places. And J. B. Hand and Sir Francis Forbes were both involved in Bermuda and Newfoundland.
In January 1941, Newfoundland on the northern flank, Trinidad on the southern, and Bermuda in the center were the first of the new Atlantic bases to be garrisoned by the US Military. The first contingent arrived in Newfoundland in January 1941, ahead of the construction forces, and in April the first garrison troops arrived in Trinidad and Bermuda, only a few weeks after the advance party of construction people. Both Newfoundland and Bermuda were intimately tied in with the defense of the northeastern seaboard, the responsibility for which rested with the Commanding General, First Army. Both garrisons, except troops engaged in construction work under the immediate supervision of the Chief of Engineers, were therefore attached to the First Army. Each was responsible for its own supply, which was to be provided by the Second Corps area to the same extent as for units of the field forces within the corps area. After some discussion by one of General Marshall's deputies with the heads of the several staff divisions, it had been decided that the only designation that would not be a source of confusion with the Navy was the rather unwieldy one, U.S. Troops in Newfoundland (or Bermuda, as the case might be). But the official orders, a week later, designated the Newfoundland force as the Newfoundland Base Command, U.S. Army, and the same terminology was used later for the Bermuda and Trinidad garrisons.
In the 1950s, many Bermudians who were schooled in the United Kingdom went there via British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC, later British Airways or BA) and a route or overnight stop at Gander Airport, Newfoundland. Some, including this author, developed their interest in aviation through this Gander connection.
In June 2008, Mr. Bert Riggs, (briggs@mun.ca) Head, Archives and Manuscripts, Queen Elizabeth II Library, Memorial University, St. John's, NL A1B 3Y1, sent this author the following email:
"I am writing to you from Newfoundland in my capacity as a member of the organizing committee for the Winterset in Summer Literary Festival, which is held in Eastport, Newfoundland, on the second weekend in August each year. Details can be found at our website http://www.wintersetinsummer.ca/. For our 2009 festival we plan a program reflecting upon the 60th anniversary of Newfoundland becoming part of the Canada. As part of that exploration of writing, we plan to invite a writer from each of three other parts of the British Commonwealth (Scotland, Tasmania, Bermuda) to talk about the role that national identity and place has in their writing. We chose Bermuda because of its strong ties with Newfoundland (as outlined above). This, coupled with the hope of the part of some Canadian and British politicians that Bermuda would one day become part of Canada (NB: after it was first proposed by this author, Keith A. Forbes, in 1975), and its decision to retain separate status within the British Commonwealth, in effect a small island state going it alone, make Bermuda an ideal choice to be part of this literary festival. Can you suggest some writers, preferably fiction writers, whose work lends itself to our discussions and who might be interested in making the trek north next August? Any assistance will be greatly appreciated."
2008. September 18. Premier Ewart Brown of Bermuda signed a Letter of Intent with his counterpart in Nova Scotia, Canada, Premier Rodney MacDonald paving the way for more formalized business and cultural ties.
The Letter was signed at Province House, in Halifax, where the Nova Scotia House of Assembly meets. Before the signing ceremony, the Premiers met over a working lunch to discuss steps that can be taken as the two jurisdictions strengthen ties. The Letter of Intent will result in an official Memorandum of Understanding. Dr. Brown also met with Nova Scotia Minister of Tourism, Culture and Heritage, Bill Dooks, and his Deputy Minister Kelliann Dean, plus other tourism officials an Bermudian students studying in Halifax. He noted there are almost 2,000 people from Canada working and living in Bermuda and as many as 300 Bermudian university students in Nova Scotia at any given time. He believes there is clearly room to grow the Bermuda-Canada relationship in areas like financial services, entrepreneurship and tourism. A Memorandum of Understanding will help all involved focus their attention on the potential. This was the first step in that process. Mr. MacDonald said: "We will sign a Memorandum of Understanding that will cement the many partnerships that exist between our two communities and pave the way to future opportunities. We are strengthening a partnership and building on an important relationship."
In
1998, Bermuda held the first ever exhibition of water colors by Her Royal Highness the Princess Louise Caroline Alberta (1848 to 1939), the
fourth daughter and sixth child of the nine born to Queen Victoria (1819 to 1901) and
Francis Albert Augustus Charles Emmanuel, Duke of Saxony. Prince of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
(1819 to 1861). She was Bermuda's first official tourist in
1883. The two big local Princess Hotels are named after her. The first was the Hamilton
(or Pembroke) Princess built originally in the late 1880's but modernized since and then
known as purely The Princess. The real Princess consented to the name. She was present for
the grand opening and named the hotel. She put Bermuda on the map of tourism with her fame
and stature. Before she became a prolific and talented artist, she was a trained sculptor. Her husband from 1871 was the Marquis of Lorne from Scotland who later became the 9th Duke
of Argyle. It was because of his Royal Appointment as Governor General of Canada that she
was able to visit Bermuda, not just once in 1883 but several times later.
She much preferred the much warmer winter climate of Bermuda to that of Canada. With her appreciation of the military, home she loved in Scotland, the Guard of Honor it provided for her wedding and the artwork she did for it, one of Scotland's most famous British Army units, The Argyllshire Regiment, was renamed to honor her. It carried her insignia for many years in its own - and served in Bermuda for two years under the old name in the late 1920s before it became The Argyllshire Highlanders, later the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders.
(Sadly, the battalion that went to Bermuda has been credited in the official regimental records in Stirling Castle as having served in Jamaica instead, 1,000 miles further south.
The leading Canadian organization which owns a number of the watercolors she painted while she was in Bermuda (and lent them to Bermuda for a 1999 exhibition) is the National Gallery of Canada. With its cooperation, the paintings were shown at the Bermuda National Gallery.
Lieutenant Thomas Hurd RN, A marine surveyor, had charted the waters of Canada's Atlantic and Gulf of St. Lawrence. He was sent to Bermuda, to sound existing channels through the reefs and find new ones prior to the building of a British naval base in Bermuda. He began his surveys in the late 1780s and completed them in 1792.
In early October that year, on his flagship HMS Resolution off the American coast, Murray was told of Lieutenant Hurd's surveys and findings in Bermuda and dispatched the 32 gun frigate Cleopatra, under Captain Penrose, to Bermuda to bring back a report and charts from Hurd. What they revealed impressed Murray so much that he called at Bermuda himself before his return to Halifax in the spring. Murray sent Penrose and the Cleopatra back to Bermuda in February, 1795, to pick up French prize crews, during which time Penrose made his own glowing report of the facilities Bermuda could offer. Murray ordered Penrose to rendezvous with him at Bermuda in May, 1795 and was so further impressed with what he saw personally, as well as in the reports of Captains Penrose and Pender (of HMS Resolution) and Lieutenant Hurd, that he enclosed them with his own report to the Admiralty dated May 27, 1795.
1906. Christmas Eve. Canadian Reginald Fessenden (1866-1932), see below - later to become famous for his Bermuda connections, made the first radio broadcast in history. Radio operators on ships in the Atlantic were shocked to hear a human voice emitting from the equipment they used to receive Morse code. Many operators called their Captains to the radio room, where they heard Fessenden make a short speech, play a record, and give a rendition of "O Holy Night" on his violin.
Fessenden, making his historic 1906 broadcast
Later, he married a Bermudian, Helen Trott, made the island his home and became headmaster of Whitney Institute School. He was the "Father of Radio Broadcasting" from 1900 and was inducted into the USA's National Inventors Hall of Fame in Akron, Ohio, in September, 2000. Bermuda historian William S. Zuill is a nephew of Helen Trott. The link continues today with the award of annual Fessenden-Trott Scholarships.
On July 3, 1996 this 17-year old Canadian visitor from Belleville, Ontario, was abducted, kidnapped, brutally stabbed, cut 35 times, beaten, tortured, gang raped repeatedly and viciously, sodomized, brutalized and murdered in Bermuda by Bermudians. It was the worst, most brutal, most animal sexually-depraved, most violent and inhuman racial murder of any woman anywhere in the world.
Read more about the details of the case and what the Canadian, UK and Bermuda Governments have not done, in Bermuda Laws.
Bermuda (CA$7.3 billion in 2005) is a main country of choice. Others are Barbados (CA$27.3 billion in 2005) Cayman Islands (CA$7.8 billion in 2005), Panama (CA$331 million in 2005).
It is not well-known throughout Bermuda or Canada that Jarvis was the family name of persons who founded in about 1792 what was originally the little town of York, in Ontario. It was a consolation prize for being Loyalists during the American Revolution when Jarvis family members were Chief Justices of the Commonwealth of Connecticut in USA. Banned from the USA or facing imprisonment and forfeiture of their property as Loyalists, they went initially to the United Kingdom. After the lengthy British process of adjudicating compensation for British subjects who lost property in the USA, the Jarvis family went to then semi-empty Upper Canada, to found and become prominent in York. Britain's plan was to occupy and populate the area to help counter what was seen in Britain as a potential future geopolitical centre of importance. It was a prophecy destined to come true with a vengeance during the second Brutish-American War, the War of 1812-14 when the town of York, later known as Toronto, was invaded and burnt after a daring surprise raid across Lake Erie by American forces.
Fortunately for the United States, Britain, from 1812, was heavily involved in fighting Napoleon. But, on October 19, 1812, Napoleon's armies began its retreat from Moscow and then began to fall apart on the plains of Russia and in the fields of Germany, Spain and Austria. By the beginning of 1813, it became possible for Britain to shift whole brigades of army veterans from the European war-zones to Canada, to join in the fight against the Americans. From that year onwards, the British naval base at Halifax, Nova Scotia was the scene of feverish activity, with men-o'-war, transports and soldiers, American shipping prizes, French prisoners of war and American soldiers in their thousands, captured during British mopping-up operations against those who had failed miserably in their attempt to seize Canada.
The American military action against the town of York and area prompted General Sir George Prevost, Governor of Canada and Commander-in-Chief of British Forces, Canada, to correspond with Vice Admiral Sir Alexander Cochrane, other Admirals and their Royal Navy ships in the Atlantic, requesting that the latter's ships undertake appropriate retaliatory action to deter the enemy from any repetition of such outrages. The request was taken seriously. In fact, it dovetailed with plans already in effect. In retaliation, in July 1814, a British Royal Navy fleet also packed with Marines and soldiers sailed from England, assembled in and sailed from Bermuda to successfully attack and burn Washington DC. The fleet took many days to make the 700-mile journey, encountered no opposition en route, and slipped into the Chesapeake Bay under cover of darkness. Smaller transports went up the reaches of the tributary Pawtuxent River to land Royal Marines and supporting troops at the river-port village of Benedict, in southern Maryland, a few miles down river from the Prince George's County line and its sleepy little county-seat of Upper Marlboro. In the subsequent overland sortie, the British marched, unopposed, from Benedict to Upper Marlboro, then swung due east for a direct attack on Washington, District of Columbia, only twelve miles away. They routed a hastily convened American army sent to oppose them, stormed into the city on August 25, sent President Madison and his Cabinet fleeing ignominiously for their lives, and burned the White House, the Capitol and other public buildings and stores. Then it attempted the same thing on Fort McHenry in Baltimore. During that engagement, Francis Scott Key wrote the words of what became the Star Spangled Banner, as a temporary detainee on one of the British warships. The melody is from a bawdy British drinking song by a London based composer. The fleet's voyage ended in Halifax, where hundreds of slaves who had lined the shores of the Pawtuxent River in Maryland and elsewhere nearby to implore British troops to help them escape from bondage had been rescued and were also on the British warships cheering on and actively assisting the sailors who had set them free. In Halifax, the slaves were promptly and officially given their freedom by the British.

Began services to Bermuda in May 2010. A Canadian low-cost carrier based in Calgary, Alberta. It flies within Canada, to the USA, Mexico, Bahamas and Caribbean. The second largest Canadian carrier behind Air Canada.
Many prominent Canadian companies hold conventions and seminars in Bermuda. |
A number of Canadians, including some of the wealthiest, own real estate in Bermuda. |
Many Canadians visit Bermuda from November to March because Bermuda is then much warmer than most of North America, although appreciably colder than the Caribbean, and hotel rates are cheaper. |
Last Updated: May
14, 2012.
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