Statistics indicate last year showed almost double the number of sightings than the previous record year of 2008. That year there were 1004 sightings of unidentified flying objects, last year across Canada there were 1,981.
The statistics come from UFOlogy, a research operation headed by Manitoba-based Chris Rutkowski is an independent science writer who has been collating the Canadian UFO survey annually since 1989
The UFO report also notes that sightings were up in every province except Saskatchewan and Prince Edward Island.
In the past sightings would be reported to either the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the military, even Transport Canada. They would track and investigate to some degree. However, the government agencies since last year no longer investigates reports of unusual sightings in the sky. While these agencies will accept reports, the information will not be investigated and may be passed on to other parties like Mr Rutkowski.
Reports are now mostly gathered through other means, and as Mr Rutkowski says, its very easy to report online, anonymously, without any worry about judgment or retribution, so I think it is very likely people will be reporting things more often to civilian organizations,” he said.
Adam Canning, 10, of Lake Charlotte, Nova Scotia., is one of the many hundreds of Canadians who are reporting UFOs.
He said the UFO he witnessed with a friend earlier this year looked like an orb. “I could see it in the distance for about a minute and then like boom, it went really fast,” said Adam, standing on a hill near his house, pointing at the sky.
“I heard this, beep, beep, beep. I knew something was in the sky. I looked up and there was a big thing. Big, round, like a big hotel or something. I looked at my buddy and I’m like, ‘That has to be a UFO.’ There’s normally helicopters flying over our house but that was way bigger than a helicopter, so I knew it wasn’t a helicopter,” he said.
“There was this one little thing sticking out from the front, it looked like a little gun or something, and there were these two things sticking out of the bottom, it looked like legs or something … There were these little round lights, around the whole thing and at the top, there was one big light.”
Kathleen Canning, Adam’s mother, said she is convinced her son is telling the truth about what he saw that night last January. Adam’s sighting will be included in the 2013 report
The majority of 2012’s sightings were gathered by civilian organizations, after various federal agencies decided to give up tracking and investigating UFO reports, according to documents obtained under the Access to Information Act earlier this year. Those organizations then pass their information on to Rutkowski. He said that may be part of the reason for the more that double the number of reports in 2012.
“It is very easy to report online, anonymously, without any worry about judgment or retribution, so I think it is very likely people will be reporting things more often to civilian organizations,” he said.
Mr Rutkowski notes that between 7 and 8% of sightings really can’t be explained, but of the rest only 15% are completely explained
He says more than half of the reports were of unusual lights in the sky. Other reports are of unusual shapes, He also notes that many reports come from pilots, police, and other credible sources with “reasonably good observational capabilities and good judgement”
“They make us wonder exactly what it is that people are seeing. Since we don’t have the proof or evidence to suggest that aliens are behind the UFO phenomenon, then what is exactly driving the UFO phenomenon?” said Rutkowski.
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