Canadian UFO Sightings Have Doubled

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The Canadian Ufology Survey was just released and it has revealed some pretty shocking data. The report claims that in 2012 alone, the number of UFO spotting across Canada had doubled from the year before, reaching an all-time high of almost 2000 spottings in just one 365 day period. That’s kind of an insane number, so I called up Chris Rutkowski, the guy responsible for running the survey, to try and find out what was going on.

Rutkowski initiated the survey back in 1986 when, as an astronomy student at the University of Manitoba, he started to realize a lot of Canadians were seeing some pretty crazy stuff in the sky. “Very few people would take these reports seriously at that time, so I decided to start calling these people back to try and find out what was going on and it took off from there. A lot the time these spottings can be explained, but sometimes they really can’t be, and that’s the truly fascinating part of it all.”

“Right now we are trying to figure out why the number of spottings doubled last year. In fact in one year it went up 100 per cent and that is very unusual.”

Chris says there are a couple possibilities for why the number increased so dramatically. “The Chris Hadfield phenomenon probably has a lot more people looking up in to the sky. Another thing is US military testing. We know the US is always testing drones (http://bit.ly/XksYtG) along the border, but we really aren’t privy to too much of that information, so it’s sometimes hard to confirm.”

It turns out Canada has a rich history of UFO spottings. In October of 1967, citizens of a small town in Nova Scotia were calling the police, reporting to have seen a plane crash into the waters off Shag Harbour. Once arriving at the scene, the RCMP and six others, reported seeing a large craft in the water, under “thick, glittery, yellow foam,” before disappearing. To this date, the unusual spotting is still Unexplainable.

“A UFO spotting is marked ‘unexplainable’ when all other possibilities have been ruled out.”  From the 2012 UFO survey, 7.5 per cent of the reports have been marked as “Unexplainable” cases. “This type of thing really makes us scratch our heads and ask ‘what is going on here? One of the highlights from the report is a family from Winnipeg who reported seeing a flying octagon over their vehicle that then took off over a field.  Pretty incredible stuff.  We just can’t explain that.”

The Canadian UFO survey data is the foundation of which all the other speculation is based, including government cover-up, abductions and close encounters.

So I had to put it out there: Who has seen a UFO? Within a couple hours of posting the question on social media, I got a response from a young man who calls himself, Barney Rumble.

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VICE: So Barney, you think you saw a UFO, what happened?
It was a while ago, but, I was outside on the roof of my house with a friend, having some beers and smoking, and out of nowhere this thing, that looked like a spaceship appeared in the sky.  It was in front of us, but still off in the distance.  At first we thought it was plane, but then we realized it couldn’t be.  It was shaped like a triangle, and inside there were large, circular, red lights, and it was just appeared to be floating in the sky.  It kept getting closer and closer to us and within a matter of ten minutes it was overhead. We were amazed. We just kept watching it.

We’re you scared?
We were freaking out!  We just stopped doing anything and we went silent and didn’t move. We were both so freaked out. We were wondering if we were seeing it because we were fucked up on acid or if this was actually happening. It was so messed up.

So. How much acid did you take that night?
We’d taken a couple hits. We’d gone out to get weed, but there was a fair going on in town and our dealer had acid too, so we got some.  We ate it at the carnival and then came back and the acid started to kick in as soon as we got home. We also go out on my roof and just chill. We were just drinking some beers, listening to Wu-Tang and smoking cigarettes and laughing. Having fun, and then we saw this crazy fucking thing in the sky.

It wasn’t moving like a plane should move—it went across sky from one side of the skyline to the other. Like the Sun, overhead east to west.

How long did it last (the UFO, not the acid)?
It lasted about ten minutes, maybe even twenty. It felt like it lasted a really long time though. Especially because at that point we were pretty messed up.

Have you taken a lot of acid in your lifetime?
Not really. Maybe 20 or 30 times. It’s $5 bucks a hit. That’s why we did it, because it was so cheap.

Did you ever see another UFO on another hit of acid?
NO. That was the only time. Which is one reason why I think it was probably real. (Or maybe just really good acid, just saying’)

Did you guys tell anyone what you saw, like your parents or the police?
We told lots of people we saw a UFO, that it was pretty crazy and that we were freaked out. Like, at first, we were really excited about it and wanted to tell everyone. But as soon as we told them we were also on acid, they didn’t really believe us anymore. They just think you’re tripping out and that part was really disappointing.

Did you see the UFO leave?
No. Eventually we went inside to grab a camera, but when we came back it was gone. Too bad. It would have been pretty awesome to have a picture of it, so we could prove it, and I guess just to have a picture of a real UFO.

That is too bad.  So what did you do next, after the UFO left?
We just kept drinking and smoking because we were so hyped, like we fucking saw an alien! It was awesome.

I described to Rutkowski what Rumble thinks he saw, and he says he couldn’t explain the UFO either. But he did recommend that Rumble, and anyone else who thinks they’ve spotted one, to email their report, so that they can collect all the data for the next survey. I also asked Rutkowski if drugs could explain a lot of these sightings and surprisingly, he said no. “I don’t think it’s just people trippin’ or making stuff up, because a lot of the time we can actually explain it. Like maybe it’s Jupiter.”

IF you ever feel like taking a hit of acid (or not) and want to make sure you see something flying in the sky, you can increase your chances by going to this website. You just punch in your co-ordinates and it will tell you everything that is flying overhead.  Rutkowski says it’s a great way to start seeing what’s going on. (That’s pretty fucking cool) “The sky is a pretty happening place, there is a lot that can be seen. It’s really very fascinating stuff.”