Canadian military suddenly takes notice of UFOs
Tristin Hopper - Tuesday
© Provided by National Post
Tristin Hopper - Tuesday
© Provided by National Post
A screengrab from an official video released by the U.S. Department of Defense showing a U.S. Navy pilot encountering
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The Canadian Armed Forces appear to be taking UFOs a bit more seriously after the U.S. military admitted publicly last year that its pilots kept seeing “unidentified aerial phenomena” they couldn’t explain.
Last June, the U.S. intelligence community released a long-awaited report confirming there had been 144 incidents of inexplicable phenomena.
Documents obtained for CTV News last week by reported Daniel Otis showed that, in advance of the U.S. release, the top echelons of the Canadian military called in Chris Rutkowski, Canada’s most prominent ufologist, for a briefing .
“Yes, I was asked to provide info on UFOs in Canada for a briefing to the Minister of Defence,” Rutkowski reported on LinkedIn following the broadcast of the CTV story .
© The Canadian Press/John Woods
First Reading is a daily newsletter keeping you posted on the travails of Canadian politicos, all curated by the National Post’s own Tristin Hopper. To get an early version sent direct to your inbox every Monday to Thursday at 6 p.m. ET (and 9 a.m. on Saturdays), sign up here.
The Canadian Armed Forces appear to be taking UFOs a bit more seriously after the U.S. military admitted publicly last year that its pilots kept seeing “unidentified aerial phenomena” they couldn’t explain.
Last June, the U.S. intelligence community released a long-awaited report confirming there had been 144 incidents of inexplicable phenomena.
Documents obtained for CTV News last week by reported Daniel Otis showed that, in advance of the U.S. release, the top echelons of the Canadian military called in Chris Rutkowski, Canada’s most prominent ufologist, for a briefing .
“Yes, I was asked to provide info on UFOs in Canada for a briefing to the Minister of Defence,” Rutkowski reported on LinkedIn following the broadcast of the CTV story .
© The Canadian Press/John Woods
Chris Rutkowski in 2016.
In May 2021, George Young, chief of staff to then-minister of defence Harjit Sajjan, wrote to the Canadian Armed Forces requesting a briefing for Sajjan on “any and all research that has been done by CAF/DND; any sightings that have been reported in recent years; any historical information that may be on file.” “ It should/could be expected that the imminent US release of information will prompt questions domestically and with Defence-related implications ,” the email says.
Canada has one of the world’s largest proportions of alleged UFO sightings. Roughly 1,000 such sightings are annually phoned in to Ufology Research, the organization operated by Rutkowski since 1989. While the majority of these reports are easily explained as aircraft or astronomical phenomena (such as a passing satellite), there have been a handful of incidents in which credible sightings of unexplained shapes or lights have been recorded by trained pilots .
One of the most notable is a 2016 incident in which the pilots of an Air Canada Jazz flight over British Columbia reported a “steady red light” that could not be explained. The details of the sighting — which can be viewed on CADORS , a federal government database of civil aviation incidents — have the flight crew witnessing what they believe to be “another aircraft with a steady red light” while on a nighttime flight from Prince Rupert to Vancouver . “No other aircraft was known to be in that vicinity or observed on radar,” it reads.
© CADORS
In May 2021, George Young, chief of staff to then-minister of defence Harjit Sajjan, wrote to the Canadian Armed Forces requesting a briefing for Sajjan on “any and all research that has been done by CAF/DND; any sightings that have been reported in recent years; any historical information that may be on file.” “ It should/could be expected that the imminent US release of information will prompt questions domestically and with Defence-related implications ,” the email says.
Canada has one of the world’s largest proportions of alleged UFO sightings. Roughly 1,000 such sightings are annually phoned in to Ufology Research, the organization operated by Rutkowski since 1989. While the majority of these reports are easily explained as aircraft or astronomical phenomena (such as a passing satellite), there have been a handful of incidents in which credible sightings of unexplained shapes or lights have been recorded by trained pilots .
One of the most notable is a 2016 incident in which the pilots of an Air Canada Jazz flight over British Columbia reported a “steady red light” that could not be explained. The details of the sighting — which can be viewed on CADORS , a federal government database of civil aviation incidents — have the flight crew witnessing what they believe to be “another aircraft with a steady red light” while on a nighttime flight from Prince Rupert to Vancouver . “No other aircraft was known to be in that vicinity or observed on radar,” it reads.
© CADORS
Detail of the CADORS report describing a 2016 incident of unexplained aerial phenomena over B.C.
The CTV briefing note mentions two others.
Just before Christmas, 2018 in Yarmouth, N.S., two witnesses (one on land, the other at sea) saw unexplained lights in the sky . What made the sighting particularly notable was that radar returns from the area showed an unexplained object right around where the two witnesses spotted the lights.
In August 2021, a “ bright green flying object ” was spotted near Gander, N.L. by two separate aircraft: An RCAF supply flight to Europe and a KLM Royal Dutch Airlines flight from Boston to the Netherlands. “ It flew into a cloud, then disappeared ,” reads the CADORS report.
© CADORS
The CTV briefing note mentions two others.
Just before Christmas, 2018 in Yarmouth, N.S., two witnesses (one on land, the other at sea) saw unexplained lights in the sky . What made the sighting particularly notable was that radar returns from the area showed an unexplained object right around where the two witnesses spotted the lights.
In August 2021, a “ bright green flying object ” was spotted near Gander, N.L. by two separate aircraft: An RCAF supply flight to Europe and a KLM Royal Dutch Airlines flight from Boston to the Netherlands. “ It flew into a cloud, then disappeared ,” reads the CADORS report.
© CADORS
CADORS report describing an encounter with a “bright green flying object” over Newfoundland and Labrador.
Voices within the Canadian aviation community have previously criticized Ottawa for an apparent lack of curiosity regarding credible UFO reports .
A 2021 investigation by VICE traced the federal response to the 2016 Air Canada Jazz sighting. Despite being called in by Vancouver air traffic controllers as a “vital intelligence sighting,” the federal government’s response seemed to consist of little more than reviewing RCAF radar data and then shelving the report once they couldn’t find anything matching the Air Canada’s pilot’s description. “All I know is I’m not impressed with the level of investigation,” veteran RCAF pilot John Williams told VICE at the time.
Critics of the lacklustre federal response don’t necessarily see UFOs as signs of extraterrestrial activity, but note that they could be sightings of unknown aircraft or drone technology that could pose a risk to national security .
This is certainly the position of U.S. authorities . “UAP (Unexplained Aerial Phenomena) clearly pose a safety of flight issue and may pose a challenge to U.S. national security,” reads the June report by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. Although the evidence was slight, the report didn’t rule out the possibility that UFOs were “foreign adversary collection platforms” or signs that “a potential adversary has developed either a breakthrough or disruptive technology .
Voices within the Canadian aviation community have previously criticized Ottawa for an apparent lack of curiosity regarding credible UFO reports .
A 2021 investigation by VICE traced the federal response to the 2016 Air Canada Jazz sighting. Despite being called in by Vancouver air traffic controllers as a “vital intelligence sighting,” the federal government’s response seemed to consist of little more than reviewing RCAF radar data and then shelving the report once they couldn’t find anything matching the Air Canada’s pilot’s description. “All I know is I’m not impressed with the level of investigation,” veteran RCAF pilot John Williams told VICE at the time.
Critics of the lacklustre federal response don’t necessarily see UFOs as signs of extraterrestrial activity, but note that they could be sightings of unknown aircraft or drone technology that could pose a risk to national security .
This is certainly the position of U.S. authorities . “UAP (Unexplained Aerial Phenomena) clearly pose a safety of flight issue and may pose a challenge to U.S. national security,” reads the June report by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. Although the evidence was slight, the report didn’t rule out the possibility that UFOs were “foreign adversary collection platforms” or signs that “a potential adversary has developed either a breakthrough or disruptive technology .
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