The Canadian Military Has Been Encountering UFOs For Decades, Documents Show

vice.
com
Daniel Otis
11-14 minutes
John Patrick McManus was leading a night navigation exercise in

Manitoba when he looked up and saw a “very bright” light.
“The light all of the sudden just zapped to the left,” the retired
Canadian lieutenant-colonel told VICE World News. “It moved at a
speed that I could not comprehend.”
Over the past month, odd encounters between UFOs and the U.S.
military have been featured in nearly every major North American
news outlet, including NBC, FOX, CNN, and CBS’ 60 Minutes.
Through access to information requests, public records, and

exclusive interviews, VICE World News has discovered close to 70
years of cases involving the Canadian Armed Forces—such as a
“large tubular object” tracked by radar in 2002, a “white spot,
turning blue and red” seen “travelling in zigzag formation” above
Ontario’s CFB Borden base in 1978, and “an orange pulsating
symmetrical light” witnessed silently speeding over Ottawa by a
pair of Air Force officers in March 1950.
“What’s most striking is that this is not a new phenomenon,”

Timothy Sayle, the director of the University of Toronto’s
International Relations program, told VICE World News. “The fact
that reports were filed in the early 1950s suggests these are not
recent, commercially available drones.”
Sayle is a historian whose research focuses on national security,

foreign intelligence, and declassified records. He points out a
document from 1953 that shows how the Canadian military
decided to standardize UFO reporting because of all the sightings
it was receiving.
“Which makes sense, because military institutions should be

searching for threats and trying to identify them,” Sayle said. “That
doesn’t mean they’re looking for aliens, but these are highly
credible observers whose professional judgement is at stake.”
In Washington, UFOs are increasingly being taken seriously. U.S.

defence and intelligence officials are currently coordinating on an
unclassified UFO report, which is expected to be delivered to
Congress by the end of June, and the Pentagon’s efforts to
investigate UFOs, which were revealed in a bombshell 2017 New
York Times article, are now being operated under a program called
the Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force. Last month, former
President Barack Obama even weighed in on the subject.
A spokesperson from Canada’s Department of National Defence

told VICE World News that while it has seen reports on these
developments, it is “not aware of any Canadian nexus or
participation in the U.S. Department of Defense’s UFO studies at
this time, nor does the Canadian Armed Forces have a unit
dedicated to investigating UFOs.”
Perhaps it should, because just like in the U.S., its personnel have
been reporting them for decades.
Of the dozen military sightings uncovered for this story, arguably

the one with the most witnesses took place on Sept. 14, 2007 at
CFB North Bay in northeastern Ontario. According to a report
obtained by an access to information request, a patrolling military
policeman “observed an intense light over the base” well before
sunrise that morning and quickly called an officer with 21
Squadron—the same air force unit that is notified when civilian
pilots spot UFOs in Canadian airspace.
Others quickly spilled outside. One officer “declined to classify the

occurrence.” Another “could not explain it either.” A different
military policeman said “the light appeared to move very slowly
upwards” with “no sound” until it “faded with the rising sun” more
than an hour after it was first noticed. The report noted the
“phenomenon has been recorded by video and digital camera.”
After it was mentioned in a recent story in the Globe and Mail,

VICE World News was able to track down the author of the
unclassified report, who provided additional details on condition of
anonymity.
“I was teased and given a hard time for reporting it,” he explained.
“Military culture can be unforgiving.”
The former military policeman describes a white “orb of light” in a

dark starless sky that appeared to be large and solid.
“It was bright and as it slowly ascended, it began to change to a

grey-black colour before it disappeared,” he recalled. “I have no
idea what the object was.”
He said it was captured on both the base’s security camera system
and a cell phone, and that all footage was “logged into evidence as
per protocol.” VICE World News attempted to obtain those
recordings via an access to information request, but was told by
Canada’s Department of National Defence that “following a
thorough and complete search… no records could be located.”
According to the report’s author, approximately 15 “curious”

military personnel saw the object, including 21 Squadron staff and
U.S. Air Force members stationed at the base as part of NORAD,
the joint Canada-U.S. air defence alliance. He claims the case was
investigated by NORAD in Colorado, which “concluded that it was
a ‘celestial event,’” without ever interviewing him.
In an email to VICE World News, a Royal Canadian Air Force

(RCAF) spokesperson from NORAD’s Canadian headquarters
declined to comment on specific incidents, and stated it does “not
typically investigate sightings of unknown or unexplained
phenomena outside the context of investigating credible threats,
potential threats, or potential distress in the case of search and
rescue.”
John Patrick McManus, who served in the Canadian Armed

Forces from 1960 to 1984, was with two other soldiers when he
spotted a UFO at CFB Shilo in Manitoba in the spring of 1981.
“Within a moment or two it shot directly away from us, diminishing

in brightness as it disappeared at a fantastic speed,” he said.
“When it was gone, I looked at these young guys and they were
just absolutely gobsmacked, because they couldn’t figure it out
any more than I could.”
When McManus reported it the next morning, he was asked to fill

out a form, which was placed in a file by the base operations
officer.
“There appeared to be other reports in there, so I assumed that

mine was not the first one that had ever crossed his desk,”
McManus, who spent most of his career in the infantry, said. “What
I reported did not surprise him at all.”
Have an unusual observation or document to share? Reach

out to Daniel Otis via Twitter at @dsotis or email otisstories (at)
gmail (dot) com.
Two hundred kilometres to the east, while sunbathing near a

runway at CFB Winnipeg in June 1985, John “Jock” Williams
claims he saw “the single brightest object I’ve ever seen in the sky
next to the sun.”
Williams spent 36 years in the Canadian military, including more

than two decades flying fighter jets such as the supersonic CF-5,
before retiring from the forces in 1997. He watched the large
motionless light for several minutes that afternoon before getting
up and ringing the base’s air traffic control tower.
“They said, ‘Oh yeah, we can see it,’” Williams recalled. “They
already had lots of phone calls about it.”
To Williams, who now works as an aviation consultant and

television commentator, the sighting seemed far from unusual.
“I’ve heard stories about fighter pilots getting sent after objects and
being unable to catch up with them or match their performance,”
said Williams, who has logged more than 13,500 hours as a
military and civilian pilot. “I’ve been hearing those stories since
1966… And I’m pretty sure that they weren’t chasing Russians,
because we could catch the Russians.”
Williams previously spoke to VICE World News for a story on the

Canadian government’s aviation incident database, which contains
dozens of UFO reports from airlines like WestJet and Air Canada.
That system also includes cases involving the military.
One, from the night of Nov. 21, 2008, describes Canadian Armed
Forces personnel notifying civilian air traffic controllers of a “UFO”
east of Regina, Saskatchewan. According to their report, “the
object was stationary with bright, white lights and had been
observed on previous occasions.”
Another, from just after dark on Nov. 27, 2002, outlines “an
observation on NORAD radar of a large tubular object between (37
and 47 thousand feet) in the area of Chicago which was moving
toward the Thunder Bay area” in northwestern Ontario. That
account seems reminiscent of a widely reported Feb. 21, 2021
event from New Mexico, when an American Airlines flight called air
traffic controllers after seeing “a long cylindrical object... moving
really fast right over the top of us.”
Military assets have even responded to sightings. One incident is

detailed in a Sept. 3, 2018 email, which was unclassified in
December. Sent by a Halifax-based Air Force captain to a slew of
senior Canadian military officers with the words “UFO / Sighting” in
the subject line, the email describes a Cormorant search and
rescue helicopter being dispatched to the coast of Prince Edward
Island after a “concerned citizen saw something fall in the water
and could neither confirm nor deny having a person on board.”
The Cormorant and a boat from a local fire department scoured
the area that night, but found nothing.
Similarly, on May 14 of this year, a video emerged from a U.S.

warship of an unidentified flying object entering the Pacific Ocean
in 2019. Released by American documentary filmmaker Jeremy
Corbell, the clip was quickly authenticated by the Pentagon.
Canada’s Navy has encountered UFOs too, like on the morning of

Aug. 21, 1968, when crew aboard a pair of destroyers in the
Pacific Ocean spotted multiple “bright objects” flying in formation.
Unclassified records from the National Research Council of

Canada and Canada’s Department of National Defence contain
scores of historic UFO reports like this, including a handful from
Canadian military bases such as CFB Cold Lake in Alberta, where
on the night of Sept. 14, 1981, a lit-up object “flew thru CFB Cold
Lake restricted area” at roughly 6,000 feet without being picked up
on radar.
Look back further and you’ll find Canadian military sightings in

nearly every decade of the Cold War era, like early on Dec. 15,
1978 at CFB Moose Jaw in Saskatchewan, when several privates
and a captain reported “four objects in line” that were “circular.
Whitish with orange and light red. Slightly above northern horizon.
Travelling west to east.”
At the same base towards dawn on Nov. 7, 1967, a sergeant

noticed “a very bright light” at an altitude of 3,000-4,000 feet with
“what appeared to the observer as small moons arcing the outer
perimeter of light.” When it began moving, “it appeared to the
observer to be elongated in shape” before it rapidly disappeared
upward.
One of the Canadian military’s oldest UFO reports comes from

April 12, 1952, at what was then called RCAF Station North Bay.
That night—and more than 55 years before the 2007 case at the
same base—two officers caught sight of something “apparently
round” like “an amber traffic light” that moved at a “very great rate
of speed—comparable to twice the speed of an F-86” jet fighter,
and then “skidded to a stop, reversed direction and disappeared…
at a greater rate of speed on reversal than on approach.” The
intelligence officer who interviewed the witnesses noted that the
“abrupt reversal of direction observed conveyed the idea that it
was most strange and worthwhile reporting.”
Matthew Hayes is a researcher and filmmaker whose 2019

doctoral dissertation focused on Canada’s Cold War UFO records.
“When I look back at older UFO reports and compare them with
those that have been coming out in the media recently, I see way
more continuity than any rupture or change,” he told VICE World
News.
“People are reporting the same things from year to year and
decade to decade,” he said. “That lends credence to the idea that
there is something here.”
Sayle from the University of Toronto agrees.
“There are phenomena in our skies that cannot be explained,” he

said. “That’s worthy of study.”

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vice.

John Patrick McManus was leading a night navigation exercise in

Through access to information requests, public records, and

“What’s most striking is that this is not a new phenomenon,”

Sayle is a historian whose research focuses on national security,

“Which makes sense, because military institutions should be

In Washington, UFOs are increasingly being taken seriously. U.S.

A spokesperson from Canada’s Department of National Defence

Of the dozen military sightings uncovered for this story, arguably

Others quickly spilled outside. One officer “declined to classify the

After it was mentioned in a recent story in the Globe and Mail,

The former military policeman describes a white “orb of light” in a

“It was bright and as it slowly ascended, it began to change to a

According to the report’s author, approximately 15 “curious”

In an email to VICE World News, a Royal Canadian Air Force

John Patrick McManus, who served in the Canadian Armed

“Within a moment or two it shot directly away from us, diminishing

When McManus reported it the next morning, he was asked to fill

“There appeared to be other reports in there, so I assumed that

Have an unusual observation or document to share? Reach

Two hundred kilometres to the east, while sunbathing near a

Williams spent 36 years in the Canadian military, including more

To Williams, who now works as an aviation consultant and

Williams previously spoke to VICE World News for a story on the

Military assets have even responded to sightings. One incident is

Similarly, on May 14 of this year, a video emerged from a U.S.

Canada’s Navy has encountered UFOs too, like on the morning of

Unclassified records from the National Research Council of

Look back further and you’ll find Canadian military sightings in

At the same base towards dawn on Nov. 7, 1967, a sergeant

One of the Canadian military’s oldest UFO reports comes from

Matthew Hayes is a researcher and filmmaker whose 2019

Sayle from the University of Toronto agrees.

“There are phenomena in our skies that cannot be explained,” he

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