text: The annual Canadian UFO Survey was released Monday, showing an increase in reports in 2015 compared to 2014 in Canada and Manitoba. 
   
   "Overall in Canada, there was a slight increase in the number of UFO reports, and it's at the second highest level of sightings that we've recorded since we started doing the survey back in the 1980s," said Chris Rutkowski, a science writer who compiled this year's survey. 
   
   In 2015, there were 1,267 reported sightings of UFOs, second only to 1,981 in 2012. 
   
   "That ranges from reports from B.C. right across to Newfoundland," said Rutkowski. "We're very puzzled because we don't hear a lot about UFOs anymore although the UFO sightings continue to come in … in 2015, there was an unusual number of cases from Quebec, in fact three or four times." 
   
   Rutkowski said the survey defines a UFO as objects in the sky that people can't explain. 
   
   "There are many ways for reports to be filed," he said, including reports from official sources like Transport Canada. "They come from every demographic … and all parts of Canada." 
   
   Most of the sightings can be explained by stars, planets, fireballs, aircraft and police helicopters, but about 12 per cent of their total reports remain unexplained despite information from other sources, Rutkowski said. 
   
   "We do break those down into high quality cases, where we do have enough information from a number of sources – investigators have gone to a site or we've talked to the witnesses … It brings the unexplained numbers to a more manageable number of one or two or three per cent," he said. 
   
   One "high quality" unexplained case included one from Manitoba in October of 2015. 
   
   A couple were driving on Dugald Road and saw a very bright light which they thought was a cellphone tower. 
   
   "As they drove a bit closer, they saw it wasn't on a cellphone tower at all," he said. "They saw what they described as a dark triangle that was moving along with the red light in front and a green and another colour on the side." 
   
   Rutkowski said it was silent and didn't look like an aircraft to the couple. 
   
   His group investigated to see if there were any aircraft in the area at the time, but so far, they haven't come up with an explanation for the sighting. 
   
   "The [report] does show that people continue to see things in the sky and whether that's an example of more education that's needed or simply an encouragement to get people to look up more instead of staring at their cellphones, I think it's important that we do continue to talk about this," he said. "As an astronomer, I know it's possible there's life out there somewhere, but we don't have the proof that it's coming here. Whether the aliens would come fly triangles around Dugald Road in the middle of the night – I don't know." ||||| Starting in 1996, Alexa Internet has been donating their crawl data to the Internet Archive. Flowing in every day, these data are added to the Wayback Machine after an embargo period. ||||| 
   
   Graham Slaughter, CTVNews.ca 
   
   
   
   
   
   A pair of orange fireballs streaking across the dark horizon. A mysterious object crashing into Lake Winnipeg. A nighttime visit from a “being with blonde hair and blue skin.” 
   
   These are among 1,267 reported UFO sightings across Canada in 2015, the second-biggest year for unexplained alien activity in the last 30 years. 
   
   The detailed Canadian UFO Survey released Monday by the Winnipeg-based group Ufology Research includes accounts of where, when and precisely what Canadians claim they saw in the sky last year. 
   
   The trove of strange stories includes dozens of unexplained lights, aircraft shaped like discs and diamonds, silently hovering UFOs and a few close encounters of the third kind. 
   
   In one case from Quebec, someone reported seeing three short “humanoids” with heads too big for their bodies and “big, black slanted eyes.” They then heard a high-pitched hum and woke up the next morning. 
   
   The stories may sound unbelievable, and researchers admit that many don’t hold up. Only about 12 per cent of the reports were classified as “unexplained.” 
   
   “The ridicule factor is quite certainly there, but we’re not saying the little grey guys are here. This is simply what people are reporting,” Winnipeg-based UFO researched Chris Rutkowski told CTV News Channel on Tuesday. 
   
   The data was collected from 17 sources across the country including Transport Canada, Canada National Defense, the National UFO Reporting Center and YouTube. 
   
   Witnesses included pilots, police officers and “other individuals with reasonably good observing capabilities and good judgement,” researchers wrote. 
   
   The only year with more UFO sightings than 2015 was 2012. Researchers believe that may have related to reports of a supposed “end-of-days” phenomenon from the Mayan calendar. 
   
   “We do know that the UFO reports continue to be made in growing numbers every year and this is just indicative that people are paying attention to what is in the sky. They’re not just looking down at their cellphones,” Rutkowski said. 
   
   Having trouble seeing this map? Click here. 
   
   UFOs prefer Quebec 
   
   Quebec led the country with 35 per cent of all UFO reports in 2015 -- a notable jump from previous years when that figure wavered between five and 15 per cent. 
   
   “It could be (that) the media are a little more attentive to the UFOs in Quebec,” Rutkowski said. 
   
   Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland all had an increase in UFO sightings in 2015. In terms of major Canadian cities, Montreal had the most reports with 97, with 78 sightings in Toronto and 69 in Vancouver. 
   
   The average sighting lasted about 16 minutes. 
   
   Ufology Research has collected the reports on a yearly basis since 1989. Since then, they’ve compiled 16,905 sightings. 
   
   Many strange lights, few alien beings 
   
   By and large, Canadians mostly reported seeing strange lights in the night sky. They came in a variety of colours (pink, orange, “brilliant white”) and shapes (orbs, triangles), and some moved in curious zigzagging or stop-and-go patterns. 
   
   The data becomes particularly strange is in several isolated reports of one-on-one contact with alien beings. 
   
   In Montpellier, Que., a “humanoid” reportedly approached a house after lights were seen. In Kentville, N.S., an alien reportedly entered a person’s bedroom and held their shoulders. In Oshawa, Ont., someone reported being abducted aboard a spaceship (a note indicates “photos that don’t show anything.”) 
   
   In an attached essay on the data, researchers ponder what, if not proof of alien life, underlies the eyewitness reports. 
   
   “Is this phenomenon psychological, sociological, cultural, and/or physical? Is it our contemporary culture’s storytelling? Is it our collective psychological and social mythology generating what myths have generated since ancient times, answers to our desires, visions of our nightmares, and insights into what our future may hold? Or is the phenomenon something else? Physical objects created by our species or another form of life we cannot begin to understand?” 
   
   Canadians more open to discussing UFOs 
   
   The steadily rising reports of UFOs could be linked to several factors: the popularization of drones, camera phones, laser pointers, at-home strobe lights. But Rutkowski suggests that the increase likely relates to the country’s collective curiosity. 
   
   “People are more interested. I think other people will talk to each other at a party or in school or university, and these are the types of topics people are interested in,” he said. 
   
   He added that, as writers like Stephen Hawking continue to pen popular books on outer space, humankind will continue to question the existence of extra-terrestrial life. 
   
   “Because space is so much in the public eye, I think people are paying a little more attention to the possibility that we are not alone.” 
   
   With files from Jesse Tahirali
target: – Perhaps aliens have taken a liking to the Great White North. The annual Canadian UFO Survey by Winnipeg-based Ufology Research shows "the second highest level of sightings that we've recorded since we started doing the survey back in the 1980s," with 1,267 across Canada in 2015, rep Chris Rutkowski tells the CBC. Only 2012 had more, with 1,981 sightings. The provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland each saw an increase in reports over 2014, but Quebec outpaced them all, according to data from 17 sources, including Transport Canada and YouTube. The province, which typically produces 5% to 15% of all UFO reports in Canada, generated 35% of reports in 2015, reports the Canadian Press. Montreal led Canadian cities with 97 reports, followed by 78 in Toronto, and 69 in Vancouver. That doesn't mean there were that many unexplained cases; about 88% of unidentifiable objects turn out to be stars, planets, airplanes, or helicopters, Rutkowski says. Ufology Research investigates the remaining cases—by visiting a site and talking to witnesses—to determine if a case is "high quality." About 1% to 3% of cases fall into this group, Rutkowski says. One of the perhaps not-so-high-quality ones: A resident in Sainte-Brigitte de Laval, Quebec, recalled seeing three 4-feet-tall "humanoids" with huge heads and "big, black slanted eyes," and hearing a high-pitched hum. "We're not saying the little grey guys are here," Rutkowski tells CTV News. "This is simply what people are reporting." (Aliens might also have a thing for Florida.)