Quebec has most UFO sightings in Canada

spaminator

Hall of Fame Member
Oct 26, 2009
35,859
3,042
113
Quebec has most UFO sightings in Canada: Survey
THE CANADIAN PRESS
First posted: Monday, April 11, 2016 11:30 PM EDT | Updated: Monday, April 11, 2016 11:43 PM EDT
WINNIPEG -- The 2015 Canadian UFO Survey says Quebec leads the country when it comes to sightings of unidentified flying objects.
The annual survey by Winnipeg-based Ufology Research was released Monday and says last year had the second-largest number of sightings in the last three decades, with 1,267.
The year with the most UFO reports -- a whopping 1,981 -- was 2012, which was also supposed to be the year the world ended, according to the Mayan calendar.
Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland reported more UFO sightings last year than the year before, but Quebec alone is responsible for about 35% of all reports in 2015.
That's way up from previous years, when Quebec's percentage was between five and 15%.
There were 97 reports in Montreal alone, followed by 78 in Toronto and 69 in Vancouver; Edmonton was a distant fourth with just 36 sightings.
The study said the typical sighting lasts about 16 minutes and more than half of the reports were of simple lights in the sky.
The study noted the number of reported UFO sightings remains high and suggested several reasons why, including more secret military flights, better access to reporting sightings, or "even that the downturn in the economy is leading to an increased desire by some people to look skyward for assistance."
The study also acknowledged "there is no incontrovertible evidence that some UFO cases involve extraterrestrial contact. The continued reporting of UFOs by the public and the yearly increase in numbers of UFO reports suggests a need for further examination of the phenomenon by social, medical and/or physical scientists."
Quebec has most UFO sightings in Canada: Survey | Canada | News | Toronto Sun

 

spaminator

Hall of Fame Member
Oct 26, 2009
35,859
3,042
113
A closer look at UFO sightings spike
By Terry Davidson, Toronto Sun
First posted: Saturday, April 16, 2016 03:48 PM EDT | Updated: Saturday, April 16, 2016 09:18 PM EDT
Quebecers are seeing things.
And what they’re seeing — more than anyone else in Canada, apparently — are unidentified flying objects.
Strange skyward spheres, blinking lights in the firmament, and luminous orbs that vanish as quick as they appear were just some of the weird sightings reported by Canadians last year and detailed in Ufology Research’s 2015 Canadian UFO Survey.
The Winnipeg group’s annual report calls Canada “a nation rich in storytelling,” but stresses that studying reports of sightings means combining witness accounts with the search for “objective truth.”
Is it something man-made? Is it a figment of one’s imagination? Is it driven by contemporary culture’s storytelling about strange celestial sightings? Or could it be, the report asks, “another form of life we cannot begin to understand?”
Quebec accounted for 35% of all reported sightings in Canada last year — a big spike for a province sitting between 5% and 15% in previous years.
“We wish we knew exactly what is going on,” said Ufology Research’s Chris Rutkowski. “There is some suggestion that maybe the media were a little more interested in UFO sightings, that maybe there was a media push in Quebec last year that resulted in more people looking up into the sky.”
There were 1,267 reported sightings in Canada last year, the second-highest total in three decades, the report says.
As for cities, there were 97 reports in Montreal, followed by 78 in Toronto and 69 in Vancouver. Edmonton was a distant fourth with just 36 sightings.
Over the years, most sightings have occurred between 9 p.m. and 11 p.m. Last year, they lasted an average of 16 minutes. The most common descriptions from survey respondents were “starlike” objects, distant lights, and “simple lights in the sky.” The year with the most UFO reports was 2012, with 1,981. It also happened to be the year when the Mayan calendar predicted the world would end.
The report says sightings of “Hollywood-style flying saucers are, in reality, relatively uncommon in UFO reports.”
But they do exist.
In May 2015, a “metallic sphere descended from high in the sky” in Drummondville, Que., and came close enough for the witness to see “the reflection of the ground on its surface,” the report says.
A month before that, a witness in Brantford claims to have spotted a “large object that was a cross between a boomerang and egg” above the tree line. It displayed “flashing white lights ... and two stripes of blue light running ... along its underbelly.”
The report suggests some possible explanations for the sightings spike: more secret military flights, it’s easier to report sightings, and the lousy economy led “to an increased desire by some people to look skyward for assistance.”
— With files from The Canadian Press
*****************************
Here’s a breakdown of the UFO sightings reported in Canada last year:
Starlike objects/distant lights: 572
Ball/globe/sphere: 228
Irregular (i.e. hexagonal) or amorphous: 226
Fireball: 48
Disk/saucer: 45
Triangle: 44
Oval/egg-shaped: 28
Rectangle: 13
Boomerang/crescent: 10
Diamond: 4
Source: The 2015 Canadian UFO Survey: An analysis of UFO reports in Canada.
A closer look at UFO sightings spike | Toronto & GTA | News | Toronto Sun