"UFOs are as real as the airplanes that fly over your head," says Paul Hellyer, former Canadian Defence Minister.
On September 25, 2005, in a startling speech at the University of Toronto that caught the attention of mainstream media, Hellyer made headlines by publicly announcing that he believes in UFOs.
"The reality is that they (aliens) have been visiting earth for decades and probably millennia and have contributed considerably to our knowledge."
We lived too long in a sense of isolation, thinking that Earth was the center of the cosmos, that we were the only species and, therefore, probably the most advanced. And when we come to the realization that we’re not any of those things, then I think we should be aware of it, learn to live with it and certainly try to take advantage of anything that we can learn from visitors from anywhere.
In 2005, he was an invited speaker at an Exopolitics Conference in Toronto, where he told the audience that he had seen a UFO one night with his late wife and some friends. Hellyer said that, although he had discounted the experience at the time, he had kept an open mind to it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gItOZbUoja8
He started taking the issue much more seriously after watching ABC's Peter Jennings' UFO special in February 2005 (details at the end of article).
After watching Jennings' UFO special Hellyer finally read U.S. Army Colonel Philip J. Corso's book, "The Day After Roswell," which had been sitting on his shelf for some time. He later spoke to a retired U.S. Air Force general, who confirmed the accuracy of the book’s information.
Hellyer revealed, "The secrecy involved in all matters pertaining to the Roswell incident was unparalled. The classification was, from the outset, above top secret, so the vast majority of U.S. officials and politicians, let alone a mere allied minister of defence, were never in-the-loop."
Hellyer's speech ended with a standing ovation. He said, "The time has come to lift the veil of secrecy, and let the truth emerge, so there can be a real and informed debate, about one of the most important problems facing our planet today." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gItOZbUoja8
Hellyer joined forces with three non-governmental organizations to ask Canada’s Parliament to hold public hearings regarding alien extraterrestrial civilizations. He publicly stated: "UFOs are as real as the airplanes that fly over your head."
Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, who himself has publicly reported a 1969 "Close Encounter of the First Kind" with a UFO, filed the original request for Canadian Parliament hearings. However, in early November 2005, the Canadian Senate wrote ICIS, indicating the Senate Committee could not hold hearings on ETs in 2005, because of their already crowded schedule.
"UFOs: Seeing Is Believing" is a two-hour American television special documentary that aired on ABC in February 2005. It is narrated by Peter Jennings and features UFOs. It was produced by PJ Productions and Springs Media for ABC News. The documentary, which has since aired on the National Geographic Channel, mentions:
- UFO sightings (Kenneth Arnold sighting, Phoenix Lights, Illinois police "black triangle" sighting incident): features CSICOP scientific consultant James McGaha, Seth Shostak and Jill Tarter of the SETI Institute, J. Allen Hynek
- The Alleged Roswell UFO Incident: features clips from Unsolved Mysteries and X-Files; Stanton Friedman
- Alien abductions: features clip from Taken; hypnotist Hopkins, psychologist Susan Clancy
- Space travel: features clips from Star Wars Episode 2 and Star Trek; Michio Kaku
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