Close encounters of the blurred kind
Survey finds Canadians reported seeing saucers, other unidentified flying objects
The truth is out there.
For at least 78 people in Toronto, the truth was also flying right in front of their eyes during 2015, according to the annual Canadian UFO survey. Conducted by Winnipeg-based Ufology Research, the survey compiles reported UFO sightings across Canada each year appearing in various sources, most of them online. Each year, the group publishes those reports, assigning ratings to each based on strangeness, believability and number of witnesses.
In 2015, Toronto and the surrounding area saw 78 UFOs, ranking below only Montreal, with 97 reports. Toronto’s numbers declined this year, even though total sightings in Canada have gone up. In 2013, the city had 111 sightings, while in 2012 it had 107.
Cataloguing UFO sightings might sound like the work of true believers, but Chris Rutkowski, a science writer and one of the researchers at Ufology Research, said the group is only probing for the truth.
“There’s a lot of speculation and sensational information that’s all over the Internet regarding UFOs, but we were concerned that there’s not enough good data in the sense of what is really being seen by people,” Rutkowski said.
What people see, it turns out, can vary wildly.
The group takes in all reports, even those of people claiming to be alien hybrids — one reporter in Hamilton claimed to be one of them stranded on Earth, using electromagnetic waves to keep hidden.
The reports are ranked on believability, taking together the number of witnesses, photographic evidence and sometimes interviews with the witnesses.
Rutkowski acknowledged that only about10 to12 per cent of sightings are unexplained, and an even smaller percentage — between 1 and 3 per cent — are really high-quality unexplained UFOs. Still, with a total of 17,000 sightings since the group started tracking data in 1989, those small percentages add up, he said.
“Those are, for example, by pilots, where there is documentation, and we’ve had the chance to speak with the individuals and look at flight plans,” he said.
One such UFO appeared in Toronto in October, when an early-morning observer saw a golden-hued diamond floating above the city. The incident made it into the report’s list of most interesting unexplained UFO sightings.
Skeptics might be surprised to learn that Rutkowski has never seen a UFO, despite an astronomy background and a lifetime of interest in the phenomenon.
“I’ve been out several times looking . . . for quite a number of years, but nothing has gone by that really made me shake my head and wonder,” he said.