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UFO Geo Politics - Paul Hellyer Canada’s UFO Defense Minister  

“And now before giving you the details of the battle, I bring you a warning: Everyone listening to my voice, tell the world, tell this to everybody wherever they are. Watch the skies. Everywhere. Keep looking. Keep watching the skies!” - The Thing (1951)

By Will StapePublished 7 years ago 7 min read
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We’re all still watching and all still waiting for anything concrete to really come out of those skies, but for millions of movie fans and followers of UFO’s or ufology, scores of vigilant Earthlings patiently watch the skies. Of course, with a subject this controversial, people tend to tread lightly when committing to their public belief. Say UFO's in mixed company and many people think it's still a silly subject for the gullible or for cable television fodder and the fringe of society. However, as a certain fictional FBI agent says, The truth is out there, and the real deal is many nations not only have revealed their own UFO files and studies, but talk on the subject in public without any hesitation.

Despite a near overwhelming denial by American authorities and law enforcement, the UFO phenomenon is still quite alive. In contrast, other countries have a more open attitude to discussing the subject of 'flying saucers.' In fact, within the borders of our neighbor to the north, Canada, there’s a highly respected man and politician who is definitive on the subject. Paul Hellyer was Canada's Minister of Defense, and he helped shaped the nation's military and foreign policy. The respected man not only freely discusses the topic, but has come out publicly to say he believes alien races exist. With X-Files back and Stranger Things burning up the trending cue on Netflix, the Truth Is Out There, and Paul Hellyer want us to know about it.

A Brief History Of American UFO’s or Flying Saucers

Kenneth Arnold

A comprehensive start of the entire UFO fascination in all its forms and complexity can’t be narrowed down to one date or person, but the coining of the term flying saucer certainly can be officially documented. It all started with an American named Kenneth Arnold, an American pilot and businessman.

On June 24 of 1947, while flying his plane near Mount Rainier, Washington, Arnold had a sighting which would change the American public’s notion of what was travelling in our skies.

His original description of the nine objects included these impressions, "flat like a pie pan", "shaped like a pie plate", "half-moon shaped, oval in front and convex in the rear", "something like a pie plate that was cut in half with a sort of a convex triangle in the rear", or simply "saucer-like" or "like a big flat disk" or a saucer skipped across water. What’s important to remember, and what’s apparently unusual for many such sightings, is Kenneth Arnold saw nine flying objects. Later, the press is where the term flying saucer would be coined, and a curious or even alarmed public would refer to a sighting of a flying object as a flying saucer or a flying disc.

Two days later, newspaper The Chicago Sun covered the event with this headline: “Supersonic Flying Saucers Sighted By Idaho Pilot”. One the same day, in the Hayward, California Review, Arnold is quoted as saying, “They were shaped like saucers and were so thin I could barely see them."

Despite the near instant fame and notoriety of the case, it’s clear Kenneth Arnold wasn’t relishing his newfound reputation as the man who helped create the flying saucer craze. He would state publicly later, "This whole thing has gotten out of hand. I want to talk to the FBI or someone. Half the people look at me as a combination of Einstein, Flash Gordon and screwball. I wonder what my wife back in Idaho thinks.”

Canada’s Roswell - The Shag Harbour Incident

If you took a casual poll of UFO events/history, the fabled Roswell incident would most likely top the most known and intriguing cases worldwide. In 1947, Roswell New Mexico was the place where something definitely crashed. The U.S. military says it was simply an experimental weather balloon or a radar sensing contraption for measuring the then Soviet nuclear arsenal. Whatever the truth, Roswell still maintains a UFO fascination for the faithful. In comparison and for reference, Canada’s Roswell would have to be Shag Harbour.

Twenty years removed from Arnold’s sighting - and also Roswell’s crash - came the downing of something in the waters of Nova Scotia, a Canadian Province. On the evening of October 4, 1967, nearly a dozen people witnessed a thing headed in the direction of Shag Harbour. In the aftermath that followed, despite witnesses who saw something in the water sink and disappear, nothing was ever recovered. Summing up the incident, The Royal Canadian Navy stated, "Not a trace... not a clue... not a bit of anything."

Paul Hellyer, who served as Canada’s Defense Minister from 1964 to 1967, isn’t only a man who’s been a respected politician, holding office in the highest echelons of public office - he’s also a trained aeronautical engineer. It’s a grounded background which would come in handy for anyone interested in unidentified flying craft. He’s also a military man - having served in the Royal Canadian Artillery as a gunner during World War II. This is a man versed in hard sciences and a veteran soldier who’s been on the frontlines of combat - he’s trained and experienced to know what’s tangible and what’s a threat.

Hellyer’s first public connection to UFO’s came in 1967, when he flew by helicopter into the town of St. Paul, Alberta, to commemorate a UFO landing pad. Constructed as a kind of tourist attraction for the town’s centennial, the landing pad’s sign boasts this inscription:

"The area under the World's First UFO Landing Pad was designated international by the Town of St. Paul as a symbol of our faith that mankind will maintain the outer universe free from national wars and strife. That future travel in space will be safe for all intergalactic beings, all visitors from earth or otherwise are welcome to this territory and to the Town of St. Paul."

This sort of public spectacle in benefit of a town’s celebration, could be quickly dismissed as simply a government official lending support to his constituency. Indeed, it wouldn’t be until 2005 that Hellyer came out loud and proud as a UFO believer - someone who, in no uncertain terms, believes our planet has been host to many alien visitors. Hellyer didn’t restrict his beliefs to merely visitation, he went so far as to accuse then American President George W. Bush of plotting an Intergalactic War. While giving a speech at the University of Toronto, Hellyer made this incredible statement:

"The United States military are preparing weapons which could be used against the aliens, and they could get us into an intergalactic war without us ever having any warning...The Bush Administration has finally agreed to let the military build a forward base on the moon, which will put them in a better position to keep track of the goings and comings of the visitors from space, and to shoot at them, if they so decide."

What’s perhaps most fascinating, though also arguably troubling, about Hellyer’s assertions, is his belief alien visitation isn’t a relatively new phenomenon. According to Paul Hellyer, the Earth’s been visited by several alien races, and their trips to our little blue marble have been ongoing for many thousands of years.

Despite his fervent belief in aliens being here among us, Hellyer hasn’t actually interacted with the visitors himself. Though he has had his own UFO sighting, however. Speaking to Russia Today in 2014, Hellyer said:

“I have seen a UFO, about a 120 miles north of Toronto. Two years ago, last Canadian Thanksgiving, my wife decided she wanted to go look at the stars, so I went with her, and she looked into the eastern sky and said, ‘There’s a star.’ And I turned around the other way and said, ‘Oh, there’s a much brighter one here!’ And she looked at it, and we watched it until our necks almost broke for 20 minutes. And it was definitely a UFO, because it could change position in the sky by 3 or 4 degrees in 3 or 4 seconds. I checked out and there were no satellites that could do that, the space station wasn’t going by and it isn’t able to move that fast anyway. There was no other explanation except it was the real thing. Two days later, I went down to the dock and got a comfortable chair, it came back in almost to the same spot and entertained me for as long as I could take it. It would drop down in the sky and then roar back up and then shift a few degrees and do a circle and come back at a speed, at just astronomical speeds.”

Paul Hellyer says he gets dozens of emails a week from people who have either had close encounters with aliens or who have even been abducted. It’s a safe bet to argue that anyone who hears Hellyer speak on the subject comes away with a respect for the man and his reputation, which is probably why he’s getting so much correspondence on the UFO subject. However, as a man of science and clear thinking, Paul Hellyer must also respect the demand for physical evidence to prove these claims. Both the scientific community and our government agencies would have to be more forthcoming if more witnesses could produce truly convincing photographs, videos or physical evidence to back up their astounding claims. Until then, what are we to make of it all?

Keep watching the skies!

extraterrestrial
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About the Creator

Will Stape

Screenwriter, book author, and producer. Wrote for 'Star Trek: The Next Generation & Deep Space Nine,' and has created docudramas for cable TV and the web.

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