At an intersection in suburban east Ottawa, Scully and Mulder, the paranormal investigative duo from the hit sci-fi TV series “The X-files” have their names emblazoned on City Of Ottawa street signs. According to a 2008 Ottawa Citizen article the names ‘Scully Way’ and ‘Mulder Road’ were given to these two intersecting streets by Claridge Homes which developed the neighbourhood in 2001, a time when the hit FOX show was at peak popularity. Paul Rothwell the former planner with Claridge Homes said that the old City of Cumberland provided a list of street names not yet taken, one of them being “Scully”. Rothwell reflected in the Citizen article that “At the time, I guess, the TV show X-Files was a big hit and I said, OK, well, there was a name that had been approved, and “Mulder” was the obvious choice for a street to go with it.”

A fun suburban tribute to television’s fictional special agents makes for an interesting landmark, but what’s even more fascinating is that Ottawa has its own real “X-File” incidents, events that stretch beyond that street corner and into the realm of the unexplained. Here are some of my favourites:

JAM BAND

In November of 2005 the City of Ottawa experienced an event where hundreds of residents were affected by a mysterious signal that jammed automatic garage door openers across the city. The phenomenon jammed automatic garage doors within a 25 mile radius, including embassy gates and residential garage doors between Aylmer and Casselman. Almost all automatic garage door openers operate with a remote that uses a radio signal on the 390 MHZ band, but on that day were rendered inoperable. Further investigation shows that the 390MHZ signal is also employed by Land Mobile Radio Systems used by the United States government, and a December 2005 US Government Accountability Office report coincidentally states:

“To address homeland defense needs and comply with government direction that agencies use the electromagnetic spectrum more efficiently, the Department of Defense (DOD) is deploying new Land Mobile Radios to military installations across the country. The new Land Mobile Radios operate in the same frequency range–380 Megahertz (MHz) to 399.9 MHz—as many unlicensed low-powered garage door openers.”

This seems to easily explain the phenomena in Ottawa but both the Canadian military and the US Embassy categorically denied any involvement using this new technology of radio signal jamming. It seems the mystery signal that affected Ottawa garage doors for 10 days defied all explanation until it suddenly vanished as quickly as it appeared. Industry Canada inspectors arrived in Ottawa to study the signal jamming but as they began to investigate the problem it disappeared and all systems returned to normal. No organization has claimed responsibility and it continues to defy alternative explanation.