After a series of embarrassing gaffes, Ken Livingstone, the London Mayor, tried to steer the focus of his Chinese visit back to the business of promoting his city and boosting its Olympic expertise yesterday. The National Day of Action took many forms including a consumer boycott by immigrants and labour stoppages. Probably the biggest demonstration took place along the National Mall in Washington where many tens of thousands gathered on a brilliant spring afternoon to listen to speeches urging unity and proclaiming the Hispanic community’s love of its adopted nation Thousands were waving flags. The unprecedented wave of immigrants’ rights protests sweeping the United States reached a new high yesterday as an estimated two million people took to the streets in 140 different cities around the country ­ an extraordinary mobilisation many supporters are likening to a second civil rights movement. This is what happens,” commented Chris Mathers, a legal consultant and former undercover police officer “It is shocking for it to happen all at one time.”. In 2000, a reporter with the Journal de Montreal, who wrote about the gangs, was shot five times in the newspaper’s parking lot He survived. People familiar with the world of the gangs said that the Bandidos have never done much to soften their tough-guy, anti-social image.

Their slogan on their Canadian web site reads: “We are the people your parents warned you about.” “This is how they deal with disputes They don’t go to court They don’t print snotty lawyers’ letters. Four years ago, police in Quebec arrested 150 people they said were associated with the Angels. While Ontario has seen its share of biker-related violence, Quebec is more closely associated with the gangs. The President of an Ontario chapter of the Outlaws, Jeffrey LaBrash, was cut down by gunfire outside a strip club in London, Ontario ­ near the scene of last weekend’s murders ­ in 1998. “Obviously this is an extraordinary event in the annals of Ontario crime,” he said, “I hope that it remains such ­ a unique and extraordinary event.” Canadian police estimate there are about 1,200 members of biker gangs across the country, affiliated with the Angels, the Bandidos or the Outlaws. Shock at the slayings was voiced, meanwhile, by the Premier of Ontario, Dalton McGuinty. “The Hells Angels Motorcycle Club, or any of its members, are not involved in this crime in any way shape or form,” the group said on its web site.

The Toronto chapter of the Hells Angels denied any involvement in the weekend slayings. A former member of the gang himself, he has written a book about belonging to the group called Out in Bad Standings. Bodies were found dumped in fields in 1994 and 1998 in the area after biker-gang killings. “I can tell you that it’s Bandidos that got killed,” Edward Winterhalder told reporters. Based in Texas, the Bandidos have 600 members worldwide, a fraction of the Angels’ numbers.