Newfy Newfy:
Just adding my 2 cents. I don't know about the laws in Canada but I do know quite a bit about them here in the UK, and yes I do work with helicopters of the military kind. My job means I work closely with our pilots. Anyway, over here it is illegal for any high power light to be shined at helicopters not just lasers. There have been several court cases here involving people shining high power "Dragon" lights or lasers at aircraft. We've had a few ourselves, usually farmers who don't like us doing low flying excercises.
and in all these cases did the plane crash? or was the end result that nothing actually happened to any of the aircraft?
Thankfully, no but that doesn't make it any less dangerous. Our helicopter pilots fly with Night Vision Systems which amplify light. If light was shined directly into their NVS they would most likely be blinded. Luckily nothing that serious has happened yet.