Canada's UFOs: The search for the unknown
The Library and Archives Canada collection of government records on UFOs was acquired from the following four federal departments and agencies:
- Department of National Defence
- Department of Transport
- National Research Council
- Royal Canadian Mounted Police
These documents were accumulated between 1947 and the early 1980s and represent all records filed with the federal government on UFOs. There are approximately 9,500 digitized documents in a variety of formats, including correspondence, reports, memos and procedures. Some are specifically concerned with particular UFO sightings, while others are more generic in nature; these may consist of reporting forms and procedures for recording events.
Although most documents contain a date (pertaining either to a sighting date or the date the document was actually created), some are undated. Similarly, approximately half of the documents refer to a specific UFO sighting location, while the others fail to mention a particular location.
Search help
Due to the wide variety of these documents, researchers are cautioned that searching by sighting date or location will render partial results-and only if this information appears on the original document itself. Researchers are encouraged to use a variety of search strategies in order to achieve more comprehensive search results.
Most of the files listed in this database were originally created in English. When searching by keyword in the "Document Title" or "Location" fields, users are encouraged to use English terms to maximize results.
The search screen contains the following search fields:
- Document Title: This refers to the specific title of each digitized record or document. It usually includes the name of the unit responsible for collecting the record. Use this field if you know the title or partial title of the unit or the file from which the document was archived.
For example, if you key in "astrophysics," you will get search results for all records held by the Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics (National Research Council).
- Sighting Date (text): This refers to the date the UFO was sighted. The date appearing in this field is not standardized; it is reproduced here as it originally appeared on the document itself. For this reason, you may need to search using a number of terms.
For example, if you are looking for records about a sighting on January 1, 1969, you may search using partial data: e.g. "January 1969" or "1969". (Note that many records in this database do not refer to specific sightings or events; consequently, there will be no sighting date associated with these records.)
- Document Date (mm/dd/yyyy): This refers to the date the original record or document was actually created. This field is searchable using the standardized date format.
For example, if you are looking for documents created on January 2, 1947, key in "01/02/1947". If you are looking for documents dating from 1968, you need only key in "1968" to obtain a results list for all records dating from that year. In general, however, this field is best used if you have a precise date to search on.
- Location: This refers to the city, town or region where the UFO was sighted. Enter a city, town or region (not a province).
For example, enter "Kingston" into the Location field; this will show results for Kingston, Nova Scotia, and Kingston, Ontario.
- Province/Territory: This is a drop-down list that refers to the province where the UFO was sighted.
- Limiting Your Search: You can limit your search parameters by keying in data for a number of fields.
For example, if you are looking for documents referring to an event in Prince Rupert, B.C. in 1968, you may wish to key in "1968" in the Document Date field, "Rupert" in the Location field and select British Columbia from the Province/Territory field.
Browse: You can browse through all the records listed in each of the following four Record Groups: Department of National Defence, Department of Transport, National Research Council, and Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Simply select the name of the department or agency. This feature will enable you to look at all the records in this group, regardless of date or location. These are generally displayed in order of their archival accession numbers.