NRC / RCMP / Canadian Forces UFO Files
Three agencies, one phenomenon. The NRC applied laboratory instruments. The RCMP knocked on doors. The Canadian Forces filed structured observation reports. This FOIA release holds the combined paper trail.
The Collection
Canada ran overlapping UFO programmes from the late 1940s through the mid-1990s. This FOIA release captures the paper trail from all of them. Military reporting forms filed under CFAO 71-6. RCMP investigation reports with witness interviews and site visits. NRC internal memos from the Upper Atmosphere Research Section. Defence Research Board analysis. The documents range from standardised observation forms to handwritten witness sketches to inter-agency memos debating what to do about it all.
Researcher Michael Best obtained the files through Canadian Access to Information requests and uploaded them to the Internet Archive via The Black Vault. The scans vary in quality, but the coverage is broad: from the earliest postwar investigations through the formal wind-down of government interest in the 1990s, and sporadically beyond.
Wilbert Smith, a Department of Transport engineer, ran Project Magnet from 1950 to 1954, investigating electromagnetic effects and gravity anomalies linked to reported UFO behaviour. Dr. Peter Millman, an NRC astronomer, chaired Project Second Storey (1952 to 1954), an inter-departmental committee that screened the strongest Canadian sighting reports. After both programmes ended, the Canadian Forces formalised military reporting under CFAO 71-6, which kept the pipeline open from the 1960s onward.
Redactions are scattered throughout, mostly names and operational details blacked out under Canadian privacy exemptions. The earlier parts (1940s and 1950s material) suffer from poor scan quality: faded typewriter text, handwritten margin notes in pencil, and microfilm reproductions that lost detail in the transfer. Later parts are generally legible.
Document Inventory
| Component | Description | Pages | Date Range |
|---|---|---|---|
| FOIA Parts 1 to 29 | NRC, RCMP, and Canadian Forces UFO files | 8,759 | 1940s to 2010s |
| Project Magnet files | Wilbert Smith's propulsion research (within FOIA parts) | Subset | 1950 to 1954 |
| Project Second Storey | Inter-departmental UFO evaluation committee (within FOIA parts) | Subset | 1952 to 1954 |
| CFAO 71-6 reports | Standardised Canadian Forces UFO reporting forms | Subset | 1960s to 1990s |
Cross-reference these government files against Canadian sighting records in the geographic database. The original PDFs were sourced from The Black Vault and preserved on the Internet Archive. The CIRVIS Intelligence Logs pick up where these files leave off, covering 2010 to 2019. The Falcon Lake incident of 1967 is the best-documented Canadian UFO case and generated DND investigation files preserved in this collection. The Just Cause newsletter, published by Citizens Against UFO Secrecy, tracked the Canadian FOIA campaign alongside its American counterpart.
The Smith Memo and What Followed
"The matter is the most highly classified subject in the United States government, rating higher even than the H-bomb."
Wilbert Smith, Department of Transport internal memorandum, November 1950, describing what he had been told by US officials about the classification status of the flying saucer programme.
Canada's formal inter-departmental UFO investigation committee ran from 1952 to 1954, chaired by Dr. Peter Millman of the National Research Council. Project Second Storey screened the strongest Canadian sighting reports and attempted to apply scientific evaluation criteria. It operated alongside Smith's Project Magnet and drew representatives from the Department of National Defence, the RCMP, and the NRC's Upper Atmosphere Research Section. Both programmes wound down in 1954 without public announcement or published findings.
The CIRVIS Intelligence Logs cover 2010 to 2019, showing that military reporting of unidentified aerial contacts continued long after the formal programmes ended.
How Canada Investigated
The Americans centralised UFO work under one programme (Project Blue Book). Canada split it three ways. The NRC brought scientific instrumentation and upper-atmosphere expertise. The RCMP drove to witness locations, took statements, and examined sites. The Canadian Forces filed structured observation reports through military command channels. Each agency had its own methodology, its own forms, its own filing system.
A single sighting near a military base could generate an RCMP witness interview, a CFAO 71-6 military observation form, and an NRC scientific assessment, all filed separately, all describing the same event. Cross-referencing between parts reveals how information moved between agencies. And where it stalled.
← Back to Canada