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Still image taken July 26th 2014 Approx 9:15 Yonge and Sheppard area
Link to original source and credit: http://psican.org/links/july26image01/
July 27th, 2014 – 10:54am DST
Paranormal Studies and Investigations Canada (psican.org)
ParaResearchers of Ontario (pararesearchers.org)
We would like to hear from anyone who witnessed these lights Please contact us at july26ontario@psican.org Your privacy will be respected and confidentiality assured.
Last evening (July 26th) multiple witnesses saw and some captured on video a series of as yet unidentified lights above the city of Toronto just after 9pm DST.
Sarah Chun reports "It was a really bright orbital object...glowing! Stayed in one spot for about 25 mins* but then started moving towards South/West towards Yonge/Sheppard... then disappeared out of my sight. Check out my other video that shows the object moving towards South/West." *As reported to us. The duration reported varies in different media accounts.
Here is another video captured by the same witness
These videos were taken from a south facing condo slightly east of Yonge and Finch.
Another probably unrelated video taken in Markham Ontario on the same night
According to the Markham witnesses this video was taken at 9th line and 16th and they were looking towards the east. Again in our opinion this is mostly likely not related to the Toronto sightings, but due to proximity and date/time felt this video should be included in the report.
The Toronto/North York sightings primarily came from the Yonge and Sheppard area. As of right now, the lights appear to be potentially over the North-Central part of the city and may not have been too far from Downsview Park/Airport area. We are still attempting to pinpoint an exact location.
Currently, there is no official explanation for the lights that we are aware of and are awaiting responses from various aviation and airport authorities.
The lights do not appear to be any configuration for any known aircraft or aerial phenomena.
PSICAN and ParaResearchers both ask any other witnesses to please contact us with information and welcome any other input on these lights.
Please contact us through...
- Facebook Group: http://psican.org/links/facebookgroup/
- Facebook Page: http://psican.org/links/facebookpage/
- Twitter: @psican
- E-Mail: july26ontario@psican.org
We will update the situations as firmer information comes in. Please scroll to the bottom of the page for the most recent updates.
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UPDATE: 12:02 DST
According to a report on CP24 ( http://psican.org/links/cp24july272014/ ) a police officer in the area of the sighting is stating that it was a quadcopter (small drone) that caused the sightings. Sadly, the news report is a bit confusing and incomplete we're hoping for more confirmation on this.
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UPDATE: 12:37 DST
Through our Facebook, we have news of another witness saying it was some young people around John MacKenzie Park (near Yonge and Sheppard) using a kite and lights for “some fun night thing”. This is the right area for the police ‘Tweet’ mentioned earlier, although a kite is not a quadcopter... and also may be a bit North of where the witnesses put the lights which was South-East of Yonge and Sheppard... and the Markham video, if filmed in Markham proper, would be difficult to explain with this.
This said, a hoax, mistake, or practical joke is not out of the question as to the origins of the sighting. We will keep updating as information is received.
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UPDATE: 14:03 DST
The police officer who Tweeted about the quadcopter was speaking only from the same viewpoint as the other witnesses and was speculating only, according to several mainstream news sources. This said, people speaking from Toronto Police Services at 32 Division seem to be set on the drone explanation... but again, we are waiting for better confirmation. Police confirm they do not investigate UFOs and are speculating on a potential cause.
Other explanations speculated on by media have been...
A lighted kite - Wind speed (according to Weather Underground) was 9km per hour with a maximum of 20km per hour... and gusts up to 32 km per hour. This would have made most kites move quite a bit, but it currently appears to be the best possible speculation.
A possible witness to kite flyers - "Alejandro, who did not give his last name, told CTV he saw a few kids setting up a kite with lights attached to it earlier in the evening. "After it got dark, a couple of hours later, I notice a line of lights," he said in an email. "[It] looked like a very potent laser pointing vertical to the sky, but it was the kite these people were preparing."
This was reported from Doris and Norton Ave.
Helium balloons with flashlights inside of them - put forward by an unnamed police officer is highly unlikely and does not match with videos or reports.
Chinese lanterns to celebrate the end of Ramadan – has been ruled out based on the video, images, and witness reports.
Aircraft queuing up to land at Pearson International Airport - very unlikely. Looking at the time the lights are static and that a few witnesses are reporting the lights as being stationary for up to twenty minutes... had the aircraft been moving away from the witness, they would have faded more (especially with visibility being reported at only 14.3 kilometers) and if landing, they would have dipped into the horizon a lot more notably then the videos show. This said, we amongst others are waiting for information from the GTAA (Greater Toronto Airport Authority.)
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Toronto Police confirmed they received several UFO reports Saturday night in the area of Yonge St. and Empress Ave. The first UFO report came in around 7 p.m. Police officers also saw the lights on their way into work around 10 p.m.
UPDATE: 32 DIVISION CONFIRM NOT A POLICE DRONE
Sgt. Barry White of 32 Division. confirmed the UFO was not a police drone although it could have still been a drone.
“A drone is just a remote control. Even one of those little tiny helicopters could be a drone,” he said. “What this thing is, we don’t know, because we never talked to the person who had it.”
Police do not have a protocol to follow on UFO sightings.
“If it was something dangerous and we could do something under the criminal code, we might. Police would go try and check it out,” he said. “But to actually go and investigate it further as a UFO I don’t think we would. I’m trying not to laugh!”
He has not received many UFO calls in his career, but remembers one in 2006.
“Someone saw something flying over the lake it could have been an airplane,” he said. “We didn’t investigate that either.”
PLEASE NOTE: Although some people may assume we (PSICAN and ParaResearchers) are trying to find or prove a supernatural or paranormal explanation for this, we are not. If all potential explanations remain less than a likely probability, (in other words, a normal/natural/man made explanation is not found,) we will simply list this as unexplained. Our groups are neutral in their interpretation of these events and experiences and unless evidence is found, refrain from making any proclamations or claims to causation without proper evidence. This is part of our standing mandate which is viewable at...
http://www.psican.org/PSICAN_Gen-Inf_Codes.pdf
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UPDATE July 30th
A new video has been posted to Youtube depicting what appears to be the same string of lights and a laser pointer from a different angle. We are hoping to discover the exact location and direction this new footage was taken which appears to be on Doris Ave. Thanks to Chris Rutkowski for the tip!
At this point in time July 31st 2014 we are still looking to speak with anyone who witnessed these lights or any other possible anomaly from the evening of July 26th 2014 in North York Ontario Please contact us at july26ontario@psican.org Your privacy will be respected and confidentiality assured.
Update September 2nd 2014
This is an update of our ongoing investigation into the Toronto UFO sightings reports of July 26th 2014. We did not include information on UFO reports from Rochester NY that occurred at the same time and date nor Markham and Stouffville reports (see previous page). The following is limited to the Toronto reports only.
Please note we never will close a case without absolute evidence of an explanation. In other words we do not close cases based on speculation. Please find below our notes, and some images and maps.
As of September 2nd 2014 we have interviewed five direct witnesses to the lights. Sarah Chun who shot the videos that initially were posted to Youtube and twittered was kind enough to answer our questions directly and promptly the following morning July 27th 2014. There are varied times reported in the media of her sighting, but to our queries she reported the total duration of her observation was approx 45 mins between 9pm and 9:45 pm with a total duration approx of the singular appearing object to the East being 25 mins.
The video she shot does not directly depict Yonge Street. What you are seeing is a view looking South on Doris Avenue which is east of Yonge and a much quieter mostly residential street. We were able to determine this by an on-site visit to the location.
Please click on the thumbnail of images below to see a larger version. A new window will pop-up:
The second set of images of the string of lights were taken on the same night facing the same direction as Sarah only further South on Doris Avenue and Olive. Please click on the thumbnail and a larger image will pop-up.
The next set of images are from Roxanna Maleki and her companions who were at the Cineplex Empress Walk Movie theatre located at 5095 Yonge Street which is South west of Sarah Chun's location. We interviewed Roxanna the morning of July 27th 2014 and she too was very helpful in providing us with information and answering all of our questions including the direction she was facing when she observed the object that she describes as looking like "like a space shuttle or an alien plane with sparkles and diamonds coming down." The witness indicated that she was facing South/South West, however we noted from her video, and Google Earth that this may not be the case so we conducted an on-site investigation to confirm our suspicion that she had to have been facing North East for at least a portion of what she was seeing and filming.
Again, please click on the thumbnail for a larger version in another pop-up window.
Please note the witness image including the Mel Lastman Square sign are on the opposite side of Yonge than the Google Image but are both facing the same direction. The angle is only slightly off.
As is shown by the maps and images, the witnesses at the theatre were looking in a different (opposite) direction than the first set of witnesses. It is our belief these (theatre goers) witnesses were looking at the same object as Sarah Chun filmed to the east, but would have been potentially behind the witness at Doris and Olive.
The first UFO report was at 4:30pm July 26th 2014 and these continued through to 10pm. I attempted to speak with the police officer Constable Craig Brister who first saw the lights and who stated it was a quadcopter (in his personal opinion through his Twitter account) from Empress Ave with a string of lights attached, but have not gotten a direct statement from him. The Desk Sgt at 32 Div says they do not investigate UFOs period, but confirmed no police drone was in the air. Police do not normally investigate UFOs and have no set protocol on how to deal with ufo reports should people contact them.
Here is a direct quote: "Somebody did see something in the sky, but what it was we don’t know,” said Sgt. Barry White, 32 Division. “It might have been someone playing with one of those remote control helicopters from one of the condos.”
We were able to confirm that there had been some minor power outages July 26th throughout Toronto including at the nearby subway and at the Cineplex where a brief power out tripped their fire alarm at 9:15pm sending the crowd out of the theatre and shopping complex and who in turn saw the reportedly anomalous light/object. This is approx 2km South South west of Sarah's position.
It is interesting to note that with genuine UAP or UFO phenomenon power outs and electronic failure have been reported to have coincided with some reports in the past. This is just an observation and may or may not be related to what the theatre goers were witnessing to the North East.
From recordings made by theatre goers it is also clear that in the excitement some honest mistakes such as misidentifying an airplane to the South were also made.
There were no objects reported to us that were directly over Yonge Street, but instead they were over much less trafficked residential streets, and larger emptier spaces. This probably helps to explain why there were not as many witnesses as one might think given how very busy the Yonge and Sheppard area is. Media headlines of UFOs over Yonge Street were misleading and added to some confusion.
In the days following the UFO reports we spoke with two different RC drone experts, and we were provided with commercially available drone information from UFO researcher Chris Rutkowski which allowed us to rule out a quadcopter.
We also contacted RC kite flying club members at Downsview, who believe the string looks like how one of their night kites might appear (one actually used the word "obvious" on their Facebook page) but it was not one of their members kite flying that night.
The GTAA have provided no comment.
We noted the weather conditions via Weather Underground including wind dir/speed including gusts and visibility. You can have a look at the historical weather data for the location, the date and time frame in question by clicking Weather For Toronto July 26th 2014.
The most plausible lead as far as a possible mundane explanation for the string of lights came from a quote given to CTV on July 27th. Here is the quote: "Alejandro, who did not give his last name, told CTV he saw a few kids setting up a kite with lights attached to it earlier in the evening. "After it got dark, a couple of hours later, I notice a line of lights," he said in an email. "[It] looked like a very potent laser pointing vertical to the sky, but it was the kite these people were preparing."
The exact location of this observation was Doris and Norton.
During our visit to the area in early August we took photos of the parkette at Doris and Norton and determined it was most likely not the location a kite might have been launched from. Having a walk through the area we did note and photograph at least one large kite that was at a considerable height and observed between two large condo buildings. We attempted to find the kite flyer in the hope of asking some questions, but the kite had been taken down before we found its source.
There are several places in the area where a kite could be safely launched and gain considerable height.
On August 10th we reached out to a representative of MUFON Canada in order to share data and see if they had any information that we did not. At that time we were advised they had closed this case, but may reopen it with new information. Unfortunately they were unable to interview any of the witnesses and a member from British Columbia who viewed Sarah Chun's Youtube video "surmised that they were helium balloons attached to a sting or tether, and they also had LED flashing lights attached. The video was shot facing south and with a 25km/h wind coming out the west, the string of balloons would have been tilted to the left, as in the video. The one light way up in the sky would have been one of the balloons coming loose from the line and floating up."
On August 24th 2014 at approx 11pm the following photo was taken and then was submitted to us. This is East of Yonge Street near Sheppard Ave. and it faces North.
The photographer who lives in the area believes this to be a kite with lights attached and we are inclined to agree. This photo along with the other evidence leads us to believe the string of lights in the first two videos taken East of Yonge Street were in all probability a night kite flyer.
The object that Sarah Chun filmed that is positioned to the East of her location and well to the East of Yonge Street and that she observed pulsing for 25 minutes prior to its moving off towards the SSW was at an altitude of at least 30 stories minimum, and would be at a considerable distance from the string of lights leading us to think this may in fact be something completely separate from what now appears to be the string of a kite.
This also holds true for the theatre goers. Roxanna's description of "an alien plane with sparkles and diamonds falling from it" may or may not be a night kite flyer, but it seems to lend itself to the kite explanation. The images from the theatre looking out towards the North and East depict a singular light of an as yet undetermined origin. It does not appear to be attached to the kite string that would have to be much farther to the south for all witnesses to have observed it from their respective locations.
Another witness was interviewed who also saw a set of strange lights in the sky on July 26th at approx 9:20pm while facing North from Yonge and St Clair Ave. This is a considerable distance to the South of the other witnesses. If this witness observed the same event as the theatre goers and Sarah Chun the altitude and lumens required would be greater in our opinion than could be explained by a night flying kite with LEDS attached to it.
In conclusion our investigation to date demonstrates more than one object (possibly up to 3 or more) were observed on the evening of July 26th 2014 in Toronto. One is very likely to be a lighted kite. The other object/s at this time remain unidentified and potentially some are genuine UAP phenomenon. It is not unusual during UFO flaps to have several IFOs or identifiable flying objects mixed up with sightings of anomalous ones. At this time we just don't know.
Our thanks and much appreciation goes to the witnesses who kindly answered our questions and shared their images and recordings. The names of witnesses that were provided in this report had previously had their names published through the media and associated with these sightings. All other witnesses remain anonymous outside of our private offline record of these events.
If you witnessed these lights/objects or experienced something unusual you believe may be UFO related in Toronto on July 26th 2014 please contact Sue St Clair at sue@psican.org Your privacy will be protected and your information will be treated with confidentiality.
