16 - The Oakville Beaver Weekend, Saturday September 30, 2006 www.oakvillebeaver.com

■ By Wilma BlokhuisOAKVILLE BEAVER STAFF

Yes Virginia, E.T. is for real.The 1982 movie E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial,

about a small homesick alien creature who isstranded three million light years away fromhome and befriends 10-year-old Elliot, may notbe far from the truth – if you believe what PaulHellyer has to say about unidentified flyingobjects (UFOs) and ETs.

Hellyer, an 83-year-old retired career politi-cian and author of 12 books, shook up the aca-demic world and took the United States mili-tary to task by saying UFOs exist in a speechdelivered on Sept. 25, 2005 at the ExopoliticsToronto Symposium on UFO Disclosure andPlanetary Direction at the University ofToronto.

Hellyer, who was a Member of Parliamentfrom 1949-1957 and again from 1958-1974,was the first person of cabinet rank in the G8group of nations to publicly state that UFOs arereal. Hellyer served as Minister of NationalDefense from 1963-1967 in the Pearson gov-ernment and oversaw the unification of theCanadian Navy, Canadian Army and CanadianAir Force into one unit, the Canadian Forces.At the time, he brushed aside all reports ofUFO sightings that crossed his desk.

Hellyer made the headline grabbing speechshortly after reading Col. Philip Corso’s book,The Day After Roswell, about the discovery andsecret removal of an alien disc that crashed toearth in 1947. News of the landing was imme-diately denied, said Hellyer.

He read the book in August 2005 whilespending a week at Arundel Lodge overlookingLake Muskoka. “I read it with total fascination;I found it very compelling.”

It brought back memories.“The closest I have come to an alleged

encounter with a UFO occurred at ArundelLodge, a small resort that my late wife and Iran for 45 years. One night a few of our guestsmet around a campfire on a big flat rockknown as Fernrock. Naturally we brought a lit-tle firewater…the poison of choice was JackDaniels’ bourbon.

“A couple of hours later a bright lightappeared in the southern sky directly acrossthe bay. It could have been an airplane that zig-zagged across the horizon in a very erraticfashion.

“The following morning some positionschanged with the consensus being that it musthave been the Jack Daniels that had beenresponsible for the zigging and zagging, butthere were three holdouts who had nothing todrink. Their conviction that it had, in fact,been a UFO remained unshakable. It was theirtestimony that persuaded me to include theincident in a little book I wrote entitledArundel Lodge.”

That incident was put aside while Hellyertowed the party line and denied UFOs and ETs

exist during his years in politics.Today he’s convinced this denial is part of a

“conspiracy of a long-term cover-up of extra-terrestrial intelligence and advanced technolo-gy” led by the United States government, saidHellyer in a speech Thursday to the ProbusClub of Oakville at Maple Grove UnitedChurch.

He said this cover-up stems from the fact“real governance has passed from elected,accountable representatives of the people to anunelected, unaccountable, elite group of seniorgovernment officials and industrial leaders –an industrial military complex – whose agendamay be incompatible with the needs anddesires of the population at large.” Hellyeradded, “This is my unshakable conviction.

“The military industrial complex thatGeneral Dwight Eisenhower warned us aboutwhen he was president is creating and produc-ing weapons systems designed to confront the

visitors from space and, in the process, pro-ducing a sure-fire recipe for possible conflict.”

Hellyer said it’s time to state the truth.Upon reading The Day After Roswell, he

first thought it to be a “work of skillfully con-trived fiction…but I ruled that out as a possi-bility because there were too many real peo-ple, real dates and real events for the story tobe fiction. Corso was a career army officerinvolved in the intelligence field and an advi-sor to Eisenhower,” said Hellyer. “He was awell-respected army officer; he had the cre-dentials to write this book.”

Hellyer said Corso wrote the book (pub-lished in 1997) “because he felt it was time tofull disclosure. He actually saw a cadaver atthe crash at Roswell and 10 years later he wasput in charge of alien artifacts.” It was his jobto keep this information top secret.

Hellyer’s nephew, in questioning the valid-ity of the book, “called a retired United States

Air Force general of his acquaintance, men-tioned the book, and was told ‘every word of itis true and more.’”

Since that speech, Hellyer was inundatedwith press interviews, speaking engagementsand reading materials – everything frombooks to leaked and classified documents.

“Some of it is pure junk, some is intriguingfiction but much of the material is pure gold,”such as a book by Jim Marrs titled AlienAgenda.

“It covers a lot of territory – the titillatingthesis that the moon may have been placed inorbit by intelligent being, UFO crashes, abduc-tions, face to face encounters, cattle mutila-tions and crop circles.”

Hellyer said Marrs’ book is balanced, “giv-ing the proponents and debunkers equal time.”

Equally compelling is a book, Majic EyesOnly by Ryan Wood documenting 74 UFOcrashes from 1897 to the present.

“While the evidence is stronger in some ofthe cases than in others, there is more thanenough to convince an unbiased reader thatUFOs have crashed on earth, governmentshave recovered and exploited these alien tech-nology gifts and most disturbing to a demo-cratic free society, the ‘alien secret’ is moreimportant than individual rights.”

Hellyer said these ‘gifts’ include themicrochip, fibreoptics, a “flexible metal resem-bling aluminum that springs back into shapeafter you bend it and let go,” and “the originalStar Wars show.”

Wood notes an April 1954 manual on extra-terrestrial recovery and disposal contained“strict instructions concerning the ‘need forabsolute secrecy in all phases of the operation’including a ‘news blackout,’” said Hellyer.

“‘Great care must be taken to preserve thesecurity of any location where extraterrestrialtechnology might be retrievable for scientificstudy. Extreme measures must be taken toprotect and preserve any material or craftfrom discovery, examination or removal bycivilian agencies or individuals of the generalpublic. It should be remembered when select-ing a cover story that official policy regardingUFOs is that they do not exist…the mostdesirable response would be that nothingunusual has occurred.

“‘Witnesses will be discouraged from talk-ing about what they have seen and intimationmay be necessary to ensure their cooperation.If witnesses have already contacted the press, itwill be necessary to discredit their stories.’”

Coupled with a “tame and compliant press,”continued Hellyer, “it is a policy that has madeliars of some of America’s most respected citi-zens and kept the majority in near total igno-rance. It is doubtful that a single member ofCongress is ‘in the loop’ concerning the ‘aliensecret.’ If that is not correct let him or herstand up and state the truth.”

– Wilma Blokhuis can be reached atblokhuis@haltonsearch.com.

Paul Hellyer says UFOs are really out there

PROBUS SPEAKER: Former Minister of Defence (1963-67) Paul Hellyer spoke at the recentProbus Club of Oakville.

A 30-year-old man who escaped policecustody while being treated at OakvilleTrafalgar Memorial Hospital has beenarrested in Brockville.

Benjamin Wood, 30, was arrestedThursday along with two women whohelped him escape.

Members of the provincial RepeatOffenders Parole Enforcement squad and

Brockville Police officers used informationfrom Halton Regional Police to find andarrest Wood and the two women at a DaysInn Hotel in Brockville.

Wood, who escaped during a medicalexamination on Sept. 21, was initially takeninto police custody for property relatedoffences.

He and the two women have now been

returned to Oakville and were scheduled toappear for a bail hearing yesterday in MiltonProvincial Court.

Wood is charged with 12 counts of theftunder $5,000, 12 counts of breach of proba-tion, six counts of use of a stolen creditcard, two counts of assaulting a peace offi-cer and one count of escaping lawful cus-tody.

Leslie Ann Mcintosh, 18, and DeniseBukala, 23, are charged with aid and abetescaping lawful custody. Mcintosh is alsocharged with breach of recognizance andfailure to comply with probation order.

Halton Regional Police are asking any-one with information on this matter to callpolice at 905-825-4777 or call CrimeStoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477).

Escaped prisoner arrested in Brockville hotel

BARRIE ERSKINE / OAKVILLE BEAVER