Alberta near top of country’s UFO sightings as issue raised at federal level

Article content

While UFO sightings in Canada have come down from pre-pandemic levels, Alberta remains near the top reporting provinces.

Article content

Those numbers come as the issue of unidentified aerial phenomenon is being taken more seriously by the media and politicians, the latter who have been feeling increasing pressure to investigate them.

Article content

Depending on the data set and time frame, Albertans have ranked third or fourth among Canadians in reporting strange sights in the sky.

One set of numbers posted by the U.S.-based National UFO Reporting Centre, which draws reports from individuals and government agencies, states Alberta has 655 cases reported since 1952, putting it third in Canada behind Ontario and B.C.

But Canadian UFO researcher Chris Rutkowski said that’s only a partial compilation, with his own calculations putting the province in fourth place — consistent with its share of the Canadian population — with about 60 sightings reported in 2020.

Article content

“Alberta holds its own,” said Manitoban Rutkowski.

The province has a storied history with the mystery, including the country’s first reported crop circle dating back to 1967 near the town of Duhamel, 100 kilometres southeast of Edmonton, which was investigated by federal officials, he said.

One of the more recent cases filed on the Canadian UFO report database dated Nov. 7, 2021, describes “a camouflaged triangular craft with three lights (that) suddenly went off in separate directions” over Calgary.

Another, from Dec. 3 of last year in Edmonton, tells of “a light blue orb at high altitude, at first it appeared to the east then it appeared to fall from the sky like a meteor.”

Those sightings and the numbers behind them have even been used by gaming companies such as Casino Source, which places the odds of spotting a UFO in Alberta at 68:1, compared to 840:1 in Quebec, with its larger population.

Article content

But on a more serious side, the phenomenon is also drawing more attention from governments, especially after the release by the U.S. military of videos depicting unidentified craft capable of extraordinary propulsion, leaving the airmen that recorded them flabbergasted.

Skeptics have dismissed those images as optical illusions amplified by distance and other factors.

A long-awaited report issued by the Pentagon in June 2021 was unable to give an explanation for many of the unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP) encounters with its naval airmen over nearly two decades.

“It’s being taken seriously because reports are coming from pilots and air traffic controllers,” said Rutkowski.

Then-Canadian defence minister Harjit Sajjan was briefed about the phenomenon in June 2021, CTV news reported last spring.

Article content

The briefing included information that there are about 1,000 UAP sightings reported in Canada each year.

Last March, after receiving decades of reports of drone or UAP sightings over Canadian nuclear power installations in several provinces, Manitoba MP Larry Maguire asked Deputy Minister of Natural Resources John Hannaford if he was aware of them.

Hannaford told the standing committee on natural resources he wasn’t, but that “I can say overall security of our nuclear facilities is obviously of extraordinary importance.”

He also told the committee he’d “certainly take under advisement” Maguire’s suggestion that Atomic Energy of Canada consult with its American counterpart over its similar experiences with UAPs.

Article content

In a subsequent letter to Hannaford, Maguire said encounters with UAPs “have been reported through normal Canadian Armed Forces channels. However, no information or investigative efforts or conclusions has ever been made public.”

Toronto-based UFO researcher Victor Viggiani said that despite Maguire’s efforts, too few MPs are able or willing to ask cabinet officials probing questions about what he calls questions of national security.

A lingering stigma to address the issue that’s nonetheless eroded in recent years is part of the reason, he said.

As for the wider issue of UAP sightings across Canada, he said 95 per cent can be explained by natural phenomenon or visual misunderstanding.

“What you’re left with are those five per cent that are totally unexplainable, and that’s the whole issue — how many are really occurring . . . we get no analysis of their energy source, which is a key factor,” said Viggiani, who’s been studying the issue for 45 years.

He noted the Canadian government, like the one in the U.S., has repeatedly investigated UAPs, then dropped the effort, only to be drawn back to studying them.

“The reason they keep coming back is that new information keeps resurfacing,” said Viggiani.

BKaufmann@postmedia.com

Twitter: @BillKaufmannjrn