Silly Little Country

Worthwhile Canadian Initiative - back to silliness

From time to time I forget the title of this blog, but a story that has been growing for a while now is offering me the opportunity to stay on topic. A former cabinet minister, and a realistic Liberal leadership hope at one time, has taken it upon himself to lead the way, somewhat as Canada did back in the 1950's with UN peacekeeping.

A former Canadian Minister of Defence and Deputy Prime Minister under Pierre Trudeau has joined forces with three Non-governmental organizations to ask the Parliament of Canada to hold public hearings on Exopolitics -- relations with “ETs.”

By “ETs,” Mr. Hellyer and these organizations mean ethical, advanced extraterrestrial civilizations that may now be visiting Earth.

On September 25, 2005, in a startling speech at the University of Toronto that caught the attention of mainstream newspapers and magazines, Paul Hellyer, Canada’s Defence Minister from 1963-67 under Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Prime Minister Lester Pearson, publicly stated: "UFOs, are as real as the airplanes that fly over your head."

Mr. Hellyer went on to say, "I'm so concerned about what the consequences might be of starting an intergalactic war, that I just think I had to say something."

I have seen much self-satisfaction communicated in various blogs of late about how UFOs have dropped from fashion because of the internet. This would seem to indicate the old devils still have some life yet. In fact the usual suspects show up (Roswell, ...).

There is a particularly Canadian twist to this. Hellyer is of course primarily worried about the US.

The United States military are preparing weapons which could be used against the aliens, and they could get us into an intergalactic war without us ever having any warning.

He seems to assume the aliens would want to warn us first and Bush would be to blame for anything that transpired. And apparently the US has a military base on the moon readying for the unprovoked aggression. Instapundit even has a picture.

Hellyer’s speech ended with a standing ovation

My theatre-going experience suggests standing ovations are somewhat easy to come by, but it is even easier here with a good shot of anti-Americanism in the mix.

It goes farther - it seems we have a variety of organizations pushing the Senate to investigate (don't worry - just the Canadian Senate - who are exhausted today from passing several bills in the last few days because of our impending election).

The Non-governmental organizations seeking Parliament hearings include Canada-based Toronto Exopolitics Symposium, which organized the University of Toronto Symposium at which Mr. Hellyer spoke.

The Disclosure Project, a U.S.– based organization that has assembled high level military-intelligence witnesses of a possible ET presence, is also one of the organizations seeking Canadian Parliament hearings.

Vancouver-based Institute for Cooperation in Space (ICIS), whose International Director headed a proposed 1977 Extraterrestrial Communication Study for the White House of 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.

The Canadian Exopolitics Initiative, presented by the organizations to a Senate Committee panel hearing in Winnipeg, Canada, on March 10, 2005, proposes that the Government of Canada undertake a Decade of Contact.

The proposed Decade of Contact is “a 10-year process of formal, funded public education, scientific research, educational curricula development and implementation, strategic planning, community activity, and public outreach concerning our terrestrial society’s full cultural, political, social, legal, and governmental communication and public interest diplomacy with advanced, ethical Off-Planet cultures now visiting Earth.”

That last paragraph fits us Canadians perfectly. Lots of government money to be spent, largely devoted to educating the public of the errors of its ways. And the assumption that the other guys are ethical.

The Senate at least have some good solid sense.

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.

“That does not deter us,” one spokesperson for the Non-governmental organizations said, “We are going ahead with our request to Prime Minister Paul Martin and the official opposition leaders in the House of Commons now, and we will re-apply with the Senate of Canada in early 2006.

“Time is on the side of open disclosure that there are ethical Extraterrestrial civilizations visiting Earth,” The spokesperson stated. “Our Canadian government needs to openly address these important issues of the possible deployment of weapons in outer war plans against ethical ET societies.”

Now I will grant that if these guys are currently visiting us, they are possibly somewhat ethical, as my own presumption is that the capability to be here would suggest they are capable of a lot of nasty stuff too. And I see no nasty stuff being done.

Of course I also see no current evidence they are here.

I think I will go out today and rent 'Mars Attacks'.

UPDATE: The Right Coast offers a deal:

Here's a possibility. We agree to let Canada take the lead in our relations with ETs, but in return they have to shut up about Iraq.

posted by Alan Adamson @ 7:55 AM