Québec UFO wave of 1973
In the autumn of 1973 Québec papers carried dozens of reports of lights and landed objects, from Saint-Mathias-de-Chambly to the Eastern Townships, during the same wave that swept the United States.
1973 CE · 45.45, -73.25 · status: disputed
The account
Catalogues of close-encounter reports list several Québec cases in October 1973, including a couple at Saint-Mathias-de-Chambly on 6 October. Chris Rutkowski's 'The Canadian UFO Report' (2006) treats the period as 'the invasion of Québec'.
The sceptical view
Wave years feed themselves: press coverage brings more reports, many of them planets, aircraft and satellites. No single Québec case from 1973 was well investigated.
The researched reading
A wave of reports fed by press coverage. Ordinary lights and expectation explain most; no single case was well investigated.
| Explanation | Weight | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Something known, misidentified | 45% | Most wave reports are planets, aircraft, satellites and stars; the 1973 US wave was fed by press coverage. |
| Perception, memory or mind | 20% | Wave years feed themselves: press coverage brings more reports. |
| A known natural phenomenon | 8% | Atmospheric phenomena can explain some lights. |
| Genuinely anomalous | 7% | No single Québec case from 1973 was well investigated. |
| A hoax or fabrication | 5% | Some landing reports may have been embellished. |
| A poorly understood natural phenomenon | 5% | Some lights may be poorly understood natural phenomena. |
| Secret human technology | 5% | Military aircraft may explain some reports. |
| Undetermined | 5% | The share the reading had given to fabrication on doubt rather than evidence: the record does not settle it either way. |
Official position: No official investigation of the wave as a whole.