Dr. Mona Nemer was officially named Canada’s Chief Science Advisor during a ceremony on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Tuesday, September 26, 2017. The Canadian Press
Canada’s top science advisor has released a new report urging the federal government to take UFO sightings more seriously. The report suggests setting up a special team to collect and study these mysterious events happening in the sky. The goal is to better understand what people across the country are seeing and reporting.
Why the Report Matters
The report says strange flying objects, now officially called UAPs (Unidentified Aerial Phenomena), continue to grab people’s attention. These events have been ignored for too long. The study recommends a full system to report, collect, and review sightings. The team behind this work, known as the Sky Canada Project, has been studying the issue since 2022.
Dr. Mona Nemer, Canada’s chief science advisor, led the effort. She wants Canada to follow other countries that already take UAPs seriously, like the United States and France. The report says pilots, flight crews, and air traffic workers should feel safe reporting what they see in the sky.
What the Report Recommends
The report wants a new federal group to lead UAP efforts. It suggests the Canadian Space Agency could take on this role with help from other agencies and researchers. The group would look into sightings, collect reports, and share results with the public.
Some other suggestions include:
- Creating a phone app for people to report UAPs
- Stopping misinformation
- Making sightings public
- Building better tools for data collection
The report says better reports will help Canada keep its skies safe. It also says learning more about UAPs could help national security.
Sightings Are Common but Ignored
Many groups in Canada already get UAP reports. These include Transport Canada, the Canadian Space Agency, the police, and the military. But most of the time, they do not investigate unless safety or national security is involved.
The Sky Canada Project found that as many as 1,000 sightings happen every year. Some reports come from trained professionals like pilots and soldiers. But people often don’t report what they see because they’re afraid of being mocked or ignored.
Canada Has Studied This Before
This isn’t Canada’s first time looking into UFOs. Back in the 1950s and 1960s, there were two government programs—Project Magnet and Project Second Storey—that studied UFOs. Later, the National Research Council collected reports until 1995. Many of those documents are still stored in archives today.
Other Countries Take It Seriously
The U.S. has an official office studying UAPs. France, Chile, and China have also formed groups to investigate strange sightings. Canada’s report says it’s time to do the same.
While the report didn’t study individual sightings, it confirms that not all cases have clear explanations. Sometimes, balloons, planes, or stars are the cause. But in a small number of cases, experts still can’t figure out what people saw.
Next Steps
Dr. Nemer says her team is ready to help again if the government wants to act on the report. For now, they are focusing on other projects. She hopes this work sparks change and encourages better reporting systems across the country.
