Are we alone? Atlantic Canadians UFO reports tripled during pandemic

A recent report from the Pentagon that studied unexplained aerial phenomena didn't provide a satisfying explanation to UFO believers, and it's leading many people to ask, ‘Are we alone?’

The nine-page unclassified report, dated June 25, 2021, detailed 144 cases of unidentified flying objects taking place between 2004-2021.

Of the 144 studied, the Pentagon was only able to identify one of them with a high level of certainty: a large deflating balloon.

Possible explanations cited within the report included everything from atmospheric phenomenon, airborn clutter, secret U.S. developmental programs, foreign adversaries, and one ominous category referred to as ‘other.’

But our southern neighbours aren’t the only ones tracking UFOs.

There has been a surge in UFO reports over the last few years across Canada.

Ufology Research of Manitoba has collected and distributed data on UFO reports from across the country since 1989.

The latest report revealed that sightings were up in 2020, rising from 849 to 1,243 across Canada — a 46 per cent increase.

Atlantic Canadian provinces saw those numbers rise dramatically from 39 in 2019 to 130 in 2020. Due to the way the numbers are reported by Ufology Research, all figures for Atlantic Canada are included together, but of those 130 reports, Nova Scotia did lead the way, with 50 reports from that province alone.

Ontario topped the list with over a quarter of all reports coming from the province.

WHY SO MANY REPORTS?

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, air travel in the country was reduced to historic lows. During this time, however, UFO reports increased.

It begs the question: is there something going on in our skies we don’t know about?

Don Ledger is a retired private pilot and author, and has written two books on UFOs, both focusing on cases from the Maritimes, including one that focused on the nowfamed 1967 Shag Harbour incident.

Ledger spent three months in the early 1990s researching the incident and others like it. He poured over 7,700 microfilms from the Canadian Archives researching the subject before putting together his first book on the subject, Maritime UFO Files.

"The cases weren’t being hidden but they weren’t being advertised either,” said Ledger.

Some of those reports, he said, could be attributed to natural phenomena or misidentification, but all of them? “Likely not,” he said.

“Shag Harbour was actually known by the Canadian military, and there were quite a few documents on it,” he said

“It was no secret to me because this thing had actually been in the newspapers for three or four days following the incident."

Ledger interviewed several dozen people about the alleged sighting.

"These were regular people, not the normal nutballs that come out of the woodwork with this stuff."

ALMOST 54 YEARS AGO

Ross MacQuarrie was driving with his family near Shag Harbour on the night of Oct. 4, 1967, when he first spotted the object.

“My mother was driving and my grandmother was in the passenger side. I was in the passenger side in the back,” he recalls.

The family’s car was travelling along the highway parallel to Shag Harbour on a section of road MacQuarrie refers to as ‘tranquility turn' for it’s natural beauty overlooking the harbour.

“There were cars stopped in front of us. Mom put the brake lights on because there was someone pulled over on the side of the road.”

The family’s car joined a few others who had seemingly stopped to gaze at the mysterious object.

“It was only about 50-60 yards away at most,” he said.

“By the time we had come to a full stop it was just barely moving, then it kind of zigzagged towards the road.”

Then, out of nowhere, the object took off like a bullet.

“It took off so fast, I wouldn’t know how many hundreds of miles per hour. I’ve never seen anything like it since," he says.

“It wasn’t like a big white light in the sky — it looked more like a grey silhouette. It kind of looked like...I don’t know, the Hindenburg... but it was really, really long, oblong-shaped. The only thing I’ve ever seen that big would be a Boeing 747.”

Though MacQuarrie’s family weren't badly impacted by the incident, he says not everyone was able to brush it off.

“I met one woman years later who was all messed up from it,” he said.

MacQuarrie’s family owned a property in Nova Scotia during that time. After that night, he remembers frequently stargazing the night sky.

“I’ve seen a lot of meteors, falling stars, but I’ve never seen anything like that before. It definitely wasn’t a plane or a helicopter either, it was way too big and way too long."

ABOUT SHAG HARBOUR

Several calls were made to the RCMP about an object that had crashed into the harbour.

At the time, most people assumed it was a plane.

Six witnesses, along with an RCMP corporal, observed the object “descend rapidly before making a bright splash into the water," according to a declassified Department of National Defense memo written after the event.

The Canadian Coast Guard and several fishing boats from the area quickly rushed to the scene in an attempt to rescue any passengers that may have been on the plane.

But in the waters off Shag Harbour, all that could be seen was a dim white light beneath the surface. By the time boats scrambled to meet the object in the cold waters off Nova Scotia, it had disappeared.

Whatever the object was, it was later confirmed by air traffic controllers that there had been no reports of missing aircraft in the area at the time of the crash.

In the days that followed, the Department of National Defense dispatched a diving team to search the seabed for any signs something had crashed, but no wreckage or bodies were ever found.

Whatever happened that night, the event has not only stayed with the residents of Shag Harbor but has also cemented itself in Canadian history. The small fishing village has a UFO museum dedicated to the event and The Royal Canadian Mint even commemorated the event in its own way with a glow-in-thedark coin in 2019.

More than 50 years later, MacQuarrie doesn’t seem to be searching for answers, confident in his own recollection of events.

“I know there’s something else out there," he says.

“I know what I seen.”