New Airbus plane sports Beluga grin

A whale of a transport aircraft will be flying high later this summer sporting the grin of a Beluga whale.

The Airbus BelugaXL, a massive transport plane, made a presentation on Thursday, its nose cone making it look like a whale. Airbus employees, 20,000 of them, voted on one of six looks and the whale face that matches its name won.

The federal government announced strict new measures on Thursday to ban most highpowered lasers around airports and in Canada’s three largest cities due to the dangers they pose when pointed at aircraft.

Transport Minister Marc Garneau announced new interim measures that prohibit anyone from possessing a batteryoperated hand-held laser over one milliwatts outside a private residence without a legitimate purpose, such as for work or education.

The restrictions, which enter into effect immediately, apply to municipalities within the greater Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver areas, as well as within 10 kilometres of any Canadian airport or heliport.

Transport Canada reported 379 incidents of lasers pointed at planes in 2017, most of which occurred in Ontario and Quebec.

That’s down from 590 in 2015 and 527 in 2016 — the year Garneau launched a public awareness campaign aimed at stopping the practice.

So far this year, there have been 63 laser incidents between January and April 30, including six at Montreal’s Pierre Elliott Trudeau airport within a two-day span in February. Despite the decreasing frequency of incidents, Garneau said more needed to be done to stop the practice.

“These dangerous attacks continue to happen far too often, more than once a day, in all corners of the country,” he told reporters in Montreal. “One laser strike is one too many.”

Garneau said shining a laser into the cockpit of an aircraft can instantly blind or distract the pilot during a crucial moment of the flight, generally when the plane is taking off or landing.

While there have been no documented instances of aircraft accidents involving lasers in Canada so far, Garneau said that even a few seconds of distraction and blindness could have a “catastrophic effect” on the pilot’s ability to land.

The expansion of two outlaw motorcycle gangs in Newfoundland and Labrador has drawn the attention of top law enforcement officials.

RCMP Staff-Sgt. Stephen Conohan said the Bacchus and Outlaws biker gangs are broadening their reach across the only province in Canada without its own Hells Angels chapter or support group.

“That’s what we’re seeing — that’s the landscape in Newfoundland and Labrador,” he said Thursday after a briefing in St. John’s. “We’re seeing an expansion.”

Conohan, who is in charge of criminal intelligence, said the Hells Angels — the world’s most notorious motorcycle gang — experienced a serious setback in the fall of 2016 when the RCMP and the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary wrapped up Project Bombard. The two-year operation virtually wiped out a sanctioned Hells Angels support club known as the Vikings.

Nine members and one associate of the Vikings were charged with numerous offences, including second-degree murder, drug trafficking and charges related to organized crime.

Those cases are still before the courts.

“They did have a foothold, but we’ve gone to great lengths to eradicate that and dismantle them,” Conohan said.

Still, the Hells Angels and their support clubs continue to frequent the province to make their presence felt.

“They’ll come and they’ll show the colours,” he said, referring to the leather vests with distinctive death’s-head insignia worn by socalled full-patch members. “I call it peacocking.”

Conohan says the Outlaws and Bacchus gangs, which are both based in Grand Falls-Windsor in central Newfoundland, have tolerated each other for several years. In fact, each outlaw club has members with relatives in the other gang.

But the more recent expansions could lead to trouble.

The Outlaws now have two prospective chapters in Bishop’s Falls and Centreville.