<\/p>\n
When: Monday October 10, 2005 at Noon \u2013 1 PM Pacific Time In its continuing Public Affairs series on Life In the Universe: On Thanksgiving Day (Canada) Coop Radio will broadcast the Hon. Paul In 1963, Hon. Paul Hellyer became Minister of National Defence in Hon. Paul Hellyer GUESTS: Victor Vigianni & Mike Bird, Directors Visit the Jerry Pippin Show’s in-depth coverage of the 2005 Toronto http:\/\/www.jerrypippin.com\/UFO_Files_toronto_exopolitics_symposium.htm<\/a><\/span> <\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n Also, you can view the Discovery Channel’s TV coverage of this Toronto event at their video archives here: http:\/\/www.exn.ca\/dailyplanet\/view.asp?date=9\/27\/2005<\/a><\/p>\n Former Canadian Defense Minister Speaks Out on Extraterrestrial Visitors & Government Secrecy<\/strong> Hellyer’s position on UFOs dramatically changed after watching the A second profound policy question concerns the designation by the Paul Hellyer is the first senior politician to openly come out and http:\/\/cnews.canoe.ca\/CNEWS\/Canada\/2005\/09\/11\/pf-1212477.html<\/a><\/p>\n September 11, 2005 VICTOR VIGGIANI \u2013 \u201cLights in the Sky\u201d<\/strong> MIKE BIRD – They’re coming. Are we ready?<\/strong> \u201cWAKE-UP WITH CO-OP\u201d MON.-WED.- FRI. 7-9 AM PT __________ <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1607","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/omniversity.us\/exopolitics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1607","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/omniversity.us\/exopolitics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/omniversity.us\/exopolitics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/omniversity.us\/exopolitics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1607"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/omniversity.us\/exopolitics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1607\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/omniversity.us\/exopolitics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1607"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/omniversity.us\/exopolitics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1607"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/omniversity.us\/exopolitics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1607"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Where: Coop Radio: CFRO 102.7 FM Vancouver, B.C.
LISTEN LIVE: http:\/\/www.coopradio.org<\/a>
Host: Alfred Lambremont Webre, JD, MEd<\/p>\n
http:\/\/exopolitics.blogs.com\/exopolitics\/2005\/04\/coop_radio_spec.html<\/a><\/p>\n
\nHellyer\u2019s speech to the Toronto Exopolitics Symposium, held September
\n25, 2005 at Convocation Hall, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario,
\nCANADA.<\/p>\n
\nthe cabinet of Lester B. Pearson, who won the Nobel Peace Prize. Mr.
\nHellyer was Minister of Defence from 1963-1967. Throughout his life,
\nHellyer has been opposed to the weaponization of space. He supports the
\nSpace Preservation Treaty<\/a> to ban space weapons. <\/p>\n
http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Paul_Hellyer<\/a><\/p>\n
EXOPOLITICS TORONTO: A Symposium on UFO Disclosure and Planetary Directions Symposium
http:\/\/www.exopoliticstoronto.com\/index.html<\/a><\/p>\n
\nExopolitics Symposium, including video coverage of former Canadian
\nDefence Minister, Hon. Paul Hellyer’s historic speech at Convocation
\nHall, University of Toronto.<\/p>\n
On
\nSeptember 25, 2005, Hon Paul Hellyer, the former Canadian Minister for
\nNational Defense gave a speech in Toronto at an event titled:
\n"Exopolitics Toronto: A Symposium on UFO Disclosure and Planetary
\nDirection" (www.exopoliticstoronto.com<\/a>)
\n. Hellyer described his time as Minister for Defense from 1963-1967
\nwhere the occasional UFO sighting report crossed his desk. He claims to
\nnever have had time for what he considered to be a "flight of fancy",
\nbut nevertheless retained an interest in the UFO phenomenon. While
\nMinister for Defense, he was guest of honor at the opening of the
\nworld’s first UFO landing pad at Alberta, Canada in 1967. He thought it
\nan innovative idea from a progressive Canadian community willing to pay
\nfor his helicopter ride, but did not give much thought to UFOs as
\nhaving serious policy implications. He also describes a private UFO
\nsighting he later had with family and guests, but once again attributed
\nit to a ‘flight of fancy’ rather than anything having serious policy
\nimplications. <\/p>\n
\nlate Peter Jennings documentary special, "Seeing is Believing" in
\nFebruary 2005. Hellyer decided to read a book that had been idly
\nsitting on his book shelf for two years. Philip Corso’s, The Day After
\nRoswell, sparked intense interest for Hellyer in terms of its policy
\nimplications. Corso named real people, institutions and events in his
\nbook that could be checked. Intrigued by the policy implications,
\nHellyer decided to confirm whether Corso’s book was real or a "work of
\nfiction". He contacted a retired United States Air Force General and
\nspoke to him directly to verify Corso’s claims. The unnamed General
\nsimply said: "every word is true and more". Hellyer then proceeded to
\ndiscuss the "and more \u2026" with the general and claimed he was told
\nremarkable things concerning UFOs and the extraterrestrial hypothesis
\nthat interplanetary visitors have been here since at least 1947.
\nFinally convinced that the UFO phenomenon was real Hellyer decided to
\ncome forward and speak at Exopolitics Toronto about some of the "most
\nprofoundly important policy questions that must be addressed." (for
\nspeech go to: www.checktheevidence.com\/video\/<\/a>
\n). The policy questions Hellyer addressed in his talk are both profound
\nand vitally important for citizens of every nation of Earth.
First,
\nHellyer claimed that evidence concerning UFOs is the "greatest and most
\nsuccessful cover up in the history of the world". He confirmed that
\nsenior political officials even at the rank of Minister of Defense, a
\nposition he himself occupied, are simply out of the loop when it comes
\nto information concerning UFOs and visiting extraterrestrials. From a
\ndemocratic perspective, that raises many concerns about oversight,
\ntransparency and accountability of those in control of the information,
\ntechnology and projects concerning the extraterrestrial visitors. <\/p>\n
\nU.S. military of visiting extraterrestrials as an ‘enemy’. According to
\nHellyer, this had led to the development of "laser and particle guns to
\nthe point that they can be used against the visitors from space." It is
\nthis targeting of visiting extraterrestrials that concerns Hellyer, and
\nhe asks "is it wise to spend so much time and money to build weapon
\nsystems to rid the skies of alien visitors?" Hellyer poignantly raises
\nthe key policy question: "Are they really enemies or merely legitimate
\nexplorers from afar?" Hellyer’s question raises profound importance in
\nunderstanding the relationship between visiting extraterrestrial
\ncivilizations and world peace.
The third policy question arose
\nfrom the recent decision by President Bush to build a base on the moon.
\nHellyer believes this is the activation of a plan first launched by Col
\nCorso’s mentor, Lt General Arthur Trudeau to build a base from which
\nvisiting extraterrestrials could be monitored and possibly targeted as
\nthey approach the Earth. Hellyer outlined his opposition to the
\nweaponization of space, something that the liberal government of Canada
\nis currently opposed to. The weaponization of space remains a key
\npolicy issue clearly has profound policy issues from the perspective of
\nextraterrestrial visitors to Earth.
Finally, Hellyer declared that
\nthe "time has come to lift the veil of secrecy" and to have an
\n"informed debate about a problem that doesn’t officially exist."
\nUnderstanding the evidence concerning the UFO phenomenon is vital to
\nfully preparing citizens around the world for the truth concerning
\nextraterrestrials, despite official denial and secrecy by those "in the
\nloop". He calls for major global initiatives to fully prepare global
\ncitizenry for the truth. He endorses a position taken by key
\nexopolitical researchers such as Alfred Webre to prepare for a "Decade
\nof Contact" where humanity is prepared for the truth about
\nextraterrestrial visitors through informed debate and education.<\/p>\n
\ndeclare the truth about the extraterrestrial presence. He is blazing a
\ntrail that many other senior politicians are destined to take. It will
\nbe wise if the world’s senior politicians quickly learn more about this
\nremarkable Canadian statesman and heed his important advise about data
\non extraterrestrial visitors and the "profoundly important policy
\nquestions that must be addressed."
\u00a9 Michael E. Salla, PhD
Sept 29, 2005
http:\/\/www.exopolitics.org<\/a><\/p>\n
Hellyer takes up the cause of believers in UFOs<\/strong>
By JOHN WARD
OTTAWA
\n(CP) – Paul Hellyer, onetime cabinet minister and a political chameleon
\nwho went through Liberal and Tory colours before founding two political
\nparties of his own, has a new cause – UFOs.
Hellyer is to be a
\nfeatured speaker at a UFO conference in Toronto later this month and
\norganizers are making much of his credentials as a former defence
\nminister in the Pearson administration 40 years ago.
Skeptics are, well, skeptical.
The
\n82-year-old Hellyer says he believes not only that UFOs are
\nextraterrestrial visitors, but that some governments – the United
\nStates at least – know all about it and are covering up.
He says
\nhe believes American scientists have re-engineered alien wreckage from
\na supposed UFO crash at Roswell, N.M. in 1947 to produce modern
\ntechnical marvels.
"I believe that UFOs are real," he said in a
\nrecent interview. "I’ll talk about that a little bit and a bit about
\nthe fantastic coverup of the United States government and also a little
\nbit of the fallout from the wreckage, by that I mean the material
\ndiscoveries we have made and how they’ve been applied to our
\ntechnology."
Hellyer was once a political star. He was first
\nelected to the Commons in 1949 at the age of 25, at that time the
\nyoungest person ever to win a seat.
He went on to become a cabinet
\nminister, ran for the Liberal leadership against Pierre Trudeau,
\nswitched parties to the Conservatives and ran for that party’s
\nleadership, too. He eventually founded two other political parties,
\nAction Canada in 1971 and the Canadian Action party in 1997.
He
\nsays his conviction that UFOs are real arose from reading in recent
\nyears, not from anything gleaned from secret archives during his time
\nin office.
"I’ve been a skeptic for quite a while but I’ve been
\nexposed to more and more information recently and have just decided to
\ntake a stand," he said.
Organizers of the MUFON conference – the
\nname is an acronym for the Mutual UFO Network – see Hellyer’s
\nparticipation as giving legitimacy to the cause.
The conference is
\nbilled as "Canada’s first major UFO symposium calling for complete
\ngovernment disclosure concerning the reality of UFOs and the
\nextraterrestrial presence on Earth."
"Mr. Hellyer’s involvement will increase the impact of the symposium," says a conference news release.
Victor Viggiani, a retired educator who is an organizer of the event, calls him a featured speaker.
"We’re
\ndepending on him to be a real focal point," Viggiani said. "We’re using
\nhis sort of experiences to demonstrate that national political figures
\ncan come out and talk about this."
He says Hellyer has a simple
\npoint to make: "Let’s start telling the truth about what we all know is
\nreally happening in the skies and journalists start paying attention,
\nthat’s basically going to be his message."
Does Hellyer feel he’s being used?
"I think they are trying to make the most of my appearance."
His
\nparticipation is exasperating for David Gower, a spokesman for Skeptics
\nCanada, a group dedicated to rational thinking and to debunking
\nparanormal claims.
"This sort of thing is a big feather in their
\ncap, to come across people like him," says Gower, who is dismissive of
\nthe whole UFO mystique.
"There’s no convincing evidence that can
\nbe anything other than personal anecdotes or allegations that can’t be
\nproven," he said.
He said UFO enthusiasts have a quasi-religious fervour that often makes them impervious to doubt.
"There
\nis a deep-seated need, a desire in people, to feel that there’s
\nsomething in control somewhere, bigger than they are, something that
\ncan give some kinds of answers."
Trying to wean people away from UFO beliefs is like "nailing Jello to the wall," he said.
Viggiani
\nsays UFOs could be a boon for mankind. He says they have technology
\nthat could solve the world’s energy problems "in one fell swoop."
This is where the conspiracy theory takes off for him.
"For
\nsome strange reasons, our governments can’t come forward to talk to us
\nabout what these energy sources are," he says. "Because oil is just
\nabout $70 a barrel and that would undercut a lot of the power
\nstructure, the World Bank . . . the fossil fuel industry.
"They are just not prepared to handle this."
Hellyer, too, thinks there are important secrets to be learned.
"I
\nthink, frankly, that the subject should be taken seriously, because
\nthere are consequences that have real effects or could have real
\neffects on the people of the world and I think there should be
\ndiscussion of it."
While some believers think western governments have actually negotiated with extraterrestrials, Hellyer doesn’t go that far.
"To my knowledge, it’s just visitations," he says.
Although
\nhis participation in the conference is likely to draw ridicule, Hellyer
\nsaid he’s used to that after his roller-coaster political life. "It
\nwouldn’t be the first time, would it?" <\/p>\n
http:\/\/cnews.canoe.ca\/CNEWS\/Features\/2005\/09\/15\/1218331-sun.html<\/a>
September 15, 2005
Lights in the sky
By BRODIE FENLON, TORONTO SUNThe truth is out there — and it may be as close as your own backyard.
Two
\nmonths ago, on July 14 at 11:45 p.m., Nova Williams was sitting with
\nher dog on the backyard patio of her family’s Toronto home when she saw
\na shooting star flash past her head.
Only it wasn’t a shooting star.
Williams
\nsaid she took a closer look and described what she saw as a glowing
\nobject shaped like "a boomerang upside down" zooming east to west over
\nKingston Rd. at about the same altitude as would fly a small
\nsingle-engine aircraft.
But unlike a Cessna, this object made no
\nsound. Williams, 35, said it sped up and slowed down in one fluid
\nmotion, then stopped suddenly and hovered.
Moments later, it moved south — without turning — toward Lake Ontario, then returned and flew out of sight, she said.
"There
\nwas no engine sound. It was an eerie quiet," said Williams, who quickly
\nsketched what she saw on a computer paint program. "I thought it was
\nkind of neat. It didn’t frighten me because I had seen something like
\nit before."
—
Every year, in every corner of this country,
\nhundreds of Canadians like Williams are seeing and reporting mysterious
\nobjects in the night sky.
Glowing orange orbs. Delta-shaped wings.
\nSilent cigar-shaped craft. Saucers and balls of coloured lights that
\nhover, then move too quickly — and in too many directions — to be
\nconventional aircraft, they claim.
Even the fiercest of cynics
\nwould be hard-pressed to dismiss some of the UFO reports filed since
\n2000 with a variety of federal agencies and obtained by the Sun.
They
\ninclude bizarre sightings by RCMP officers, air traffic controllers and
\ndozens of military and commercial pilots — even the pilot of an
\naircraft carrying the prime minister during a flight over Alberta in
\nMarch 2004.
Officially, Transport Canada and the department of
\nnational defence say they have no interest in UFO sightings, which they
\npass on to Chris Rutkowski, a lone astronomer and volunteer in Winnipeg
\nwho receives one or two reports a day.
Hundreds more are reported
\nindependently to the National UFO Reporting Center (NUFORC), a
\nSeattle-based organization that receives, records and attempts to
\ncorroborate eyewitness accounts. Others are sent to Canadian UFO
\nresearcher Brian Vike of HBCC UFO Research, which has a comprehensive
\nwebsite that includes photos, video footage, audio interviews of
\nwitnesses and a breakdown of reports by province.
It’s a global
\nphenomenon that, according to these reports, has repeatedly touched our
\nown backyards. In the last three months, more than 40 UFOs have been
\nspotted in Ontario, including:
– Whitby, Aug. 12: A bright white shape like a "teardrop" raced up into the sky at 1 a.m.
– Vaughan, July 13: An orange disc, its light fading in and out, hovering over the IKEA store on Hwy. 7.
–
\nSt. Catharines, July 5: Five friends camping in a park near the city
\nclaim they saw six saucer-like objects at 2 a.m. One of the objects
\nreportedly dropped to within three metres of the ground and "emitted
\nfour pulses" of blinding light. The anonymous witness who reported the
\nincident to NUFORC noted, "Three of my four friends made it clear that
\nthey never wanted to speak of the event again."
– Toronto, July 3:
\nA V-shaped formation of more than 20 glowing oval objects flying over
\nan apartment building at 919 Dufferin St.
Rutkowski, who describes
\nhimself as an "open-minded skeptic," said the majority of UFO sightings
\nhe receives can be explained away as satellites, aircraft or
\nhelicopters, the international space station, search lights,
\nastronomical anomalies like meteorites and meteorological phenomenon
\nsuch as ball lightning.
For instance, a "very bright light falling
\nfrom (the) sky" reported by the pilot of the PM’s aircraft and a number
\nof other airliners in March 2004 was likely a meteorite.
But each
\nyear, there are a "handful to two dozen" well-documented sightings in
\nCanada that simply can’t be explained, Rutkowski said, noting he’s
\nnever seen a UFO himself.
Science, he added, has a done itself a
\ngreat disservice by ignoring a phenomenon that thousands of people
\naround the world claim they have witnessed.
"If it’s not a
\nphysical phenomenon, it’s at the very least a social or psychological
\nphenomenon and it should be investigated by science," Rutkowski said.
"It’s very good to approach this with an open mind, as long as it’s not so open your brain falls out."
Some
\nof the most compelling reports obtained by the Sun were filed by people
\nwhose jobs entail sober thought and rational observation skills, such
\nas pilots and police officers:
– The pilot of a Cessna Citation
\n560 twin-engine executive jet reported a "very large stationary
\nmetallic object beside the moon at a very high altitude" to air traffic
\ncontrol in Toronto on April 28, 2003. Several other pilots reported the
\nsame object, as the report notes: "(Aircraft) reporting was flying
\nbetween Buffalo, N.Y., and London, Ont., and saw it for 30 min, and was
\nflying at an altitude of 43,000, said (sic) the object was much higher.
\nThe shift supervisor at Toronto airport telephoned this in; he also
\nsaid that several other (aircraft) reported same UFO."
– The pilot
\nof Air Canada Flight 1185 flying over Saskatchewan in December 2001
\nreported a UFO to air traffic control in Winnipeg. The report, which
\nwas submitted to the Canadian Air Defence Sector, noted: "The
\n(aircraft) pilot observed strobes and flashing lights which he
\nestimated to be (7,600-9,000 metres) above him … The co-pilot of the
\n(aircraft) flight observed same. Pilot noted that it did not look like
\na satellite."
– An officer with the Royal Newfoundland
\nConstabulary watched for about an hour and a half as two white objects
\nmoved north to south over Seal Cove in the Conception Bay area of the
\nprovince on Aug. 3, 2001.
– On Sept. 8, 2004, the pilot of an Air
\nCanada flight from Vancouver to Saskatoon reported a UFO "heading south
\nat high speed — passed directly overhead."
But, even the best-trained eyes can be fooled.
Cpl.
\nEd Anderson and then-Const. Jeff Johnston were based at the RCMP
\nPangnirtung detachment in Nunavut on Jan. 9, 2001, when they were
\ncalled by a resident to check out a red light hovering in the sky over
\nthe remote northern hamlet on Cumberland Sound.
Armed with cameras and binoculars, the officers watched the mysterious object for more than 20 minutes.
In
\ntheir separate incident reports, the officers described a stationary
\nobject that faded in and out "almost as though it was slowly rotating
\nin the sky." After about 10 or 15 minutes, the light lowered until it
\nwas hovering above the ice, its light reflected in the snow.
"It
\nappeared to be like a cylinder-type shape. The light then disappeared
\nand was not seen again," Johnston noted in his report. "At this point,
\nwriter has no idea what the object was … It was definitely a strange
\noccurrence and at this time remains unexplained and unidentified."
Reached
\nby the Sun in Moncton, Johnston said he and his partner reported their
\nobservations to several agencies, including Norad. They were told the
\nobject was likely a satellite that appeared odd because they were
\npositioned so far north.
The officers were satisfied with the explanation several nights later when they saw the same object in the same location.
—
But for others, like Nova Williams, there is no earthly explanation for what they see in the heavens.
An
\nairshow enthusiast, a former volunteer auxiliary officer with Toronto
\nPolice, and until recently, an employee of a provincial professional
\nassociation, Williams said she is certain that what she saw is not from
\nthis world.
The Scarborough woman’s July encounter was not her
\nfirst: In the early 1980s, when she was 12 or 13, she and her father
\nwere stargazing in the same backyard when they saw three similar
\nobjects flying in a V formation, she said.
Several times
\nthroughout that week, Williams said her family saw "tonnes of
\ndisc-shaped objects darting in and out of each other without losing
\nspeed" in the sky over their house. Her aunt was "terrified" and has
\nrefused to speak of it since, she said.
Another unexplained
\nencounter involved a bright beam of light from the sky that filled the
\nfamily’s living room about six years ago while she and her mother were
\nwatching late-night TV.
As strange as it all sounds, Williams is not afraid to speak out about her experiences.
But
\nwhen she recently asked her neighbours if they had seen the same
\nobjects, she was met with an awkward silence before they changed the
\nsubject.
"I think people are very narrow-minded," she said. "If
\nthey start thinking about it, it frightens them. So they don’t think
\nabout it at all." <\/p>\n
(The Globe and Mail is Canada’s largest National Newspaper with 2.5 million Canadians who read the Globe throughout the week)
http:\/\/www.theglobeandmail.com\/servlet\/ArticleNews\/TPStory\/LAC\/20050924\/UFOS24\/TPEntertainment\/?query=hellyer
They’re coming. Are we ready?<\/strong>
This weekend, Toronto will host some of the UFO community’s more level-headed types, writes ANTHONY REINHART.
They believe alien visitors are on the way, and we should be prepared to make contact
By ANTHONY REINHART
Saturday, September 24, 2005 Page M3
On
\na warm September evening in 1975, while sipping pre-dinner drinks
\noutside with his family, Mike Bird found his truth right here — not
\n"out there," as they would say later on the X-Files. From his perch on
\nClose Avenue in south Parkdale, Mr. Bird turned his 24-year-old eyes to
\n"a bright, fuzzy ball, just sitting there, shimmering" over Lake
\nOntario.
"I watched it for two hours," says Mr. Bird, now 54,
\nrecalling how he fetched his telescope and trained it southward. "My
\nwife looked at it, my parents looked at it. Before long, I was firmly
\nconvinced that we were dealing with something real."
Tomorrow, at
\nthe University of Toronto’s Convocation Hall, Mr. Bird will join
\nhundreds of fellow earthlings who, he hopes, will be similarly
\nconvinced — not only that UFOs exist, but that governments know far
\nmore about extraterrestrial visitors than they’re letting on.
"It’s
\nnot about selling T-shirts," he says of the event. "It’s about putting
\nup the best speakers who can represent the position that we are not
\nalone."
The day-long symposium, dubbed Exopolitics Toronto, is an
\neffort by the UFO community’s more moderate and serious adherents to
\nprod officialdom into opening its own X-files so that citizens of Earth
\ncan plan for the day aliens make contact.
Their beef about secrecy
\nis an old one, easily dismissed by skeptics inured to supermarket
\ntabloids, sci-fi blockbusters and out-there conspiracy theories. The
\ntrouble, Mr. Bird and his colleagues say, is that credible data get
\noverlooked in the process.
To them, official disclosure would not
\nonly help to silence the skeptics, but also the wackier elements of the
\nUFO community, who only make the issue easier for the rest of us to
\nlaugh off and for governments to avoid.
"I stopped reading science
\nfiction once I saw that the UFO was real," says Mr. Bird, the regional
\nhead of Mutual UFO Network (MUFON), a small but committed international
\nband of volunteer investigators, founded in the United States in the
\n1960s. "It became science fact that just hasn’t been proven yet."
Soon
\nafter his Close Avenue encounter 30 years ago, Mr. Bird heard a radio
\nad for a night course on UFOs at Castle Frank High School, taught by
\nHenry McKay, founder of MUFON Canada. He signed up, and a year later,
\nhe and Mr. McKay rounded up a dozen others, rented a small bus and
\nheaded to a MUFON conference in Michigan.
There, they heard J. Allen
\nHynek, the astrophysicist who set out to debunk UFO claims for the U.S.
\nAir Force in the 1950s — only to find that he couldn’t. Dr. Hynek, who
\ncoined the term "close encounters of the third kind" before Steven
\nSpielberg made it famous, was among the first scientists to lend
\ncredibility to UFO study.
Mr. Bird, a computer programmer and
\nrecreational hockey player, cannot claim similar credentials. He does,
\nhowever, claim an abundance of curiosity, fuelled by that first
\nsighting in 1975, and three more since then in the Toronto area.
In
\nthe early days, Mr. Bird would sit on the roof of his father’s cottage
\nand scan the night sky, but he saw nothing but stars and satellites.
\nSubsequent sightings came during field investigations for MUFON, which
\nhe sometimes conducts with other members, but not his wife. ("She’s not
\nenamoured by it," he admits, "but she doesn’t think I’m a nut.")
The last one happened three years ago just west of the city.
"I
\nwas standing in a crop formation north of Milton," Mr. Bird says. "I
\nlook up and I see this super-bright light up to the north and west of
\nme."
He watched the big light overtake a smaller one, from a plane, and head east toward Pearson airport.
Thoughts
\nthat it might have been an unusually bright jetliner disappeared weeks
\nlater when he found a similar report on the Seattle-based National UFO
\nReporting Center’s website. It described a sighting near Kingston,
\nseveral hundred kilometres to the east, from the same night.
"To
\nme, that’s a match," Mr. Bird says, "but I don’t need a match. I need
\nto get down to the hard work of making this mean something."
That
\ncan be a lonely job in Canada, much less Toronto. MUFON counts just 50
\nmembers coast to coast, while similar local groups have come and gone.
Mr.
\nBird hosts occasional meetings at an Etobicoke library, which typically
\nattract about 20 of the curious — though few are curious enough to
\njoin MUFON. All volunteer investigators must first pass a test on the
\ncontents of a 311-page field manual, which sets out strict procedures
\nfor evidence-gathering.
As for tomorrow’s conference, advance ticket
\nsales were slow this week, but Mr. Bird, hoping for a crowd of at least
\n1,500, is banking on a lot of walk-in traffic.
"We think we’re
\nbringing forth the best people on the planet," he says of the five
\nspeakers on the bill. Most anticipated, perhaps, is the latest addition
\nto that list: Paul Hellyer, a former defence minister in Lester
\nPearson’s Liberal government, who believes that UFOs exist, and that
\nofficials have been too quiet about it.
Also on the list are
\nAmerican author and historian Richard Dolan; Italian
\njournalist\/researcher Paola Harris; researcher Stanton Friedman of New
\nBrunswick; and Stephen Bassett, Washington’s only registered UFO
\nresearch lobbyist and a frequent speaker on "exopolitics" — the
\npolicies humans might employ in the event of contact with
\nextraterrestrial beings.
Like many in the movement, Mr. Bird puts
\ngreat stock in the hundreds of plausible, if unproven, accounts that
\nMUFON has collected in firsthand interviews, often from sources who are
\neasy to trust: astronauts, military and commercial pilots, police
\nofficers.
"If a pilot says a UFO hovered off the bow of his plane,
\nit either happened or it didn’t," Mr. Bird says. "It’s either yes or
\nno, and if we’re not alone, our planet needs to know that so that we
\nknow what to do tomorrow."<\/p>\n
\u201cMONDAY BROWNBAGGER\u201d MON. Noon \u2013 1 PM PT
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SIGN OUR U.N. PETITION TO BAN WEAPONS AND WARFARE IN SPACE
http:\/\/www.thepetitionsite.com\/takeaction\/832338563<\/a>
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