At a time when the American government has decided to take the study of unidentified flying objects (UFOs) more seriously, these phenomena are still being studied by amateurs in Canada and Quebec, a province that is the champion of reports.
The Americans announced Friday the establishment of a US Navy unit to study UFOs.
The Pentagon particularly fears Chinese espionage, using drones or other airborne means.
On the Canadian side, “we are trying to do a comparable job,” explains Chris Rutkowski, senior author of the Canadian UFO Survey, published annually by the UFOlogy Research group since 1989.
Archive photo
Other unidentified flying objects seen in Quebec.
“Even without having access to all the archives, we manage to have a good portrait,” he adds. In his last report, which dates from July, the research coordinator compiled 849 reports of UFOs in Canada in 2019, including 35% in Quebec.
In Montreal alone, 46 unidentified flying objects were sighted last year.
Canada, like the United States, has already had research projects that looked into the existence of UFOs in the 1950s. The National Research Council of Canada also collected sighting reports until 1995 .
Since then, amateur groups, such as the Quebec Ufology Association (AQU) or the UFO Study, Observation and Reporting Group, have taken over.
See it to believe it
“We believe in the existence of extraterrestrials,” says Gilles Milot, president and founder of the AQU.
Archive photo, Sarah-Maude Lefebvre
Gilles Milot, president and founder of the Association québécoise d’ufologie (AQU).
His organization has about twenty volunteers who will investigate the field and meet witnesses if a report seems credible to them.
Very often, ufologists recognize that the observed phenomena can be explained by the presence of a satellite or a comet, for example.
However, the Canadian UFO investigation estimates that around 3% of reports went without explanation in 2019.
“I don’t mean to be mean, but there are no great scientific thoughts in [ces milieux-là] », Warns Christian Page, journalist specializing in strange and unexplained phenomena.
He points out that most amateurs who investigate UFOs are basically convinced of their existence, which tends to skew their research results.
Unknown phenomenon
Astrophysicist Robert Lamontagne for his part recalls that the majority of the population has little knowledge of astronomical phenomena, which can easily mislead them.
“Especially when you’re in a big city, you rarely see more than the moon, the sun, a few stars and a few planets,” he emphasizes.
The scientist no longer counts the times he received photos of a “UFO” by email, and which turned out to be … Venus, a particularly bright planet which is visible only a few weeks by year.
Some numbers
◆ 849: number of reports (2019)
◆ 35%: percentage of reports from Quebec
◆ 46 : number of reports in Montreal, making it the city at the origin of the highest number of reports in the country
◆ 14 minutes : average length of observation of the UFO
◆ May : month when the most UFOs were reported
Source: Canadian UFO Survey for the year 2019
Reactions
” We want to better understand what Canadians see. We receive reports from Quebec to Nunavut, from ordinary citizens, such as pilots or air traffic controllers. ”
– Chris Rutkowski, senior author of the Canadian UFO Investigation
” From extraterrestrial life, yes. Most specialists agree that there must be life elsewhere in the universe. But extraterrestrial visitors, no. “
– Robert Lamontagne, astrophysicist and research professor
” What concerns us are the black triangles. We had cases in Quebec this summer. Now we see more diamonds. “
– Gilles Milot, president and founder of the Association québécoise d’ufologie
” In Quebec, there are only private associations, which do “investigative” work. These people are doing the best they can with what they can afford. “
– Christian Page, journalist specializing in strange and unexplained phenomena