Foos over Canada

[Ron Caliburn]

A mysterious object in the sky over Montreal this week is getting a lot of attention, including from a respected Montreal doctor who believes he saw something "out of this world."

Several people in the Côte St. Luc neighbourhood called police early Wednesday morning about UFOs or strange blinking lights hovering high in the sky.

Dr. Cleve Ziegler, an obstetrician-gynecologist, spotted the object when he was driving home from work around 12:30 a.m. He couldn't believe his eyes.

"There were many little sparkly red and blue lights. It had a changing shape, morphing from something that looked triangular to something that looked like a trapezoid. It was not a stable shape," Ziegler told CBC News.

"It was coming closer and [then moved] farther, it was turning and rotating."

He then saw other people looking up at the same thing, including a man who told him his wife was so spooked that she scurried home.

"I'm a guy who spends a lot of time in the country in the summer. I have seen satellites. I've seen falling stars. I know what a plane looks like. None of those things had the trajectory or motion that this did," said Ziegler.

Ziegler called police, who had already received several other calls about the mysterious object in the sky. He forwarded a dark, poor-quality video he took on his cellphone to authorities.

He admits the video doesn't do justice to what he saw.

"What I saw was compelling, unusual and you had this visceral sense looking at it that this is a once-in-a lifetime thing," he said. "At a risk of sounding Hollywood and shlocky, it was kinda not of this world."

Theories about what was in the sky Wednesday night have already started circulating among astronomy buffs and experts.

Andrew Fazekas, a director at the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, said the object was likely of this world.

"From the description, definitely I would say it is not something astronomical. It's not a satellite. And it's not a star or anything like that," said Fazekas.

"It could have been some sort of balloon. Strobe lights on a private? A powerful laser?"

Fazekas said the sightings are getting a lot of attention.

"It is starting to make the rounds and getting viral because people are naturally interested in unidentified things in the sky. People are drawn to it," said Fazekas.

Montreal police received several calls about a mysterious object in the sky after midnight Wednesday morning.

Const. Daniel Lacoursière said Trudeau Airport reported nothing on the radar in that area at the time.

He posed another theory. Around the same time, helicopters were buzzing around the site of a fuel spill at the Port of Montreal in the other end of town.

Ziegler said he doesn't believe in extraterrestrial life, but thinks he did see something otherworldly.

"It's not like I want to believe this," he said.