Introduction

Library and Archives Canada has acquired the UFO collection documents from the following four federal departments and agencies:

Ministry of National Defence

Ministry of transportation

National Research Council of Canada

Royal Canadian Mounted Police

These documents were collected between 1947 and the early 1980s and represent all UFO files filed with the federal government. There are approximately 9,500 scanned documents of different types, including letters, reports, memos and procedures. Some deal specifically with testimonials from people who have seen UFOs at specific times, while others are more general in nature, such as reporting forms or procedures for recording events.

While most documents mention a date (the date the UFO was first seen, or the date the document was created), some do not have a date. Similarly, about half of the documents refer to a specific location where a UFO was seen, whereas no particular place is named in other documents.