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What Happened After Defence Stopped Holding UFO Files?
The NRC file shows how Canadian officials kept public UFO reports without promising full field investigations.
On this page
- The 1968 hand off from defence to NRC
- What a repository role did and did not mean
- How Ontario sightings fit the non meteoritic file
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Introduction
After the Canadian military and defence agencies reduced their direct role in handling UFO reports, the paperwork did not disappear. Instead, much of it moved into a quieter and more bureaucratic system centred on the National Research Council of Canada (NRC). From 1968 onward, the NRC maintained what became known as the Non-Meteoritic Sighting File, a repository for reports of unusual aerial objects that could not immediately be identified as meteors. For Ontario’s UFO history, this shift matters because many later reports survived not as major investigations but as archived observations, correspondence and reporting forms preserved within a scientific record-keeping system rather than an active investigative programme. [Collection Search]recherche-collection-search.bac-lac.gc.caIt took… Canada's UFOs: The search for the unknown." The reports for…Read more…
The result was a different kind of federal involvement. The NRC collected and stored reports, helping ensure they were not lost, but it generally did not promise extensive field investigations. Understanding that distinction is essential when reading Ontario UFO records from the late 1960s through the early 1980s.
What Happened After Defence Stopped Holding UFO Files?
By the late 1960s, the intense Cold War interest that had helped draw military and defence organisations into UFO reporting had faded. Canada did not create a permanent UFO investigation agency. Instead, responsibility for preserving many reports shifted to the NRC, particularly through its astronomical institutions. The archival record identifies the beginning of NRC collection activity in 1968, when reports started being gathered under the heading of non-meteoritic sightings. [Collection Search]recherche-collection-search.bac-lac.gc.caIt took… Canada's UFOs: The search for the unknown." The reports for…Read more…
The terminology itself is revealing. Officials did not label the collection simply as a UFO archive. By using the phrase “non-meteoritic sightings”, the NRC framed the issue through an astronomical lens. Reports that might have been caused by meteors could be screened out, while unusual observations could be retained for reference and evaluation. The emphasis was on classification and record keeping rather than proving extraordinary claims. [Collection Search]recherche-collection-search.bac-lac.gc.caIt took… Canada's UFOs: The search for the unknown." The reports for…Read more…
This administrative change also reflected a broader reality of Canadian UFO policy. Unlike the popular image of a dedicated investigative office, Canada increasingly relied on existing institutions to receive, file and assess reports according to their normal responsibilities. The NRC became one of the main repositories for those records. [Canada]canada.caCanada's UFOs: The search for the unknown2 Mar 2026 — Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Search Canada's UFOs: The search for the unkno…
What a Repository Role Did — and Did Not — Mean
The NRC’s role is often misunderstood. The existence of a federal file can create the impression that every report triggered a scientific investigation. The surviving records suggest something more limited.
A repository role meant:
- Receiving reports forwarded from citizens, police, military units, aviation personnel and other agencies.
- Preserving correspondence and reporting forms.
- Providing scientific assessment when a conventional astronomical explanation appeared possible.
- Maintaining a central reference collection that could be consulted later. [Collection Search]recherche-collection-search.bac-lac.gc.caIt took… Canada's UFOs: The search for the unknown." The reports for…Read more…
It did not necessarily mean:
- Dispatching investigators to every sighting location.
- Conducting long-term field studies of individual reports.
- Treating every unidentified report as evidence of an extraordinary phenomenon.
- Operating as a dedicated national UFO investigation service. [Collection Search]recherche-collection-search.bac-lac.gc.caIt took… Canada's UFOs: The search for the unknown." The reports for…Read more…
This distinction explains why many Ontario cases appear in federal archives as brief reports rather than detailed investigations. The preservation of a sighting and the explanation of a sighting were often separate matters. A report could enter the file simply because someone considered it unusual enough to record.
The approach resembles what later Canadian reviews of unidentified aerial reporting would describe as a reporting-management function rather than a programme designed to prove or disprove unusual claims. [ISED Canada]ised-isde.canada.casky canada projectISED CanadaSky Canada Project3 Dec 2025 — The Sky Canada Project was launched in the Fall of 2022 to study how Unidentified Aerial Phenom…
How Ontario Sightings Fit the Non-Meteoritic File
Ontario appears frequently within the NRC collection because of the province’s population, aviation activity and proximity to Ottawa, where many federal agencies were based. The Library and Archives Canada UFO database contains numerous NRC records tied to Ontario locations, demonstrating that the province remained a significant source of reports after the 1968 transition. [lac-bac.gc.ca]lac-bac.gc.caARCHIVE DDocument…
The surviving records show a wide range of observations. Some involve single witnesses reporting lights in the sky. Others involve police officers, military personnel or multiple observers. Many reports were brief and factual, reflecting the administrative purpose of the file rather than an attempt to build dramatic narratives. [Library and Archives Canada]collectionscanada.gc.caLibrary and Archives Canada ARCHIVEDDocument…
An important example comes from northern Ontario reporting linked to the Sudbury and Falconbridge area in 1967–68 records later preserved within the NRC holdings. Messages and follow-up correspondence document multiple witnesses, police involvement and efforts to collect basic observational details such as colour, direction, duration and apparent movement. The documents reveal officials gathering information systematically but cautiously, without claiming that the objects represented anything extraordinary. [Internet Archive]archive.orgCanada FOIA Part 17 Pages 4801 5100 djvu.txtNOT RECEIVED ALL SIGHTING REPORTS BT National Research Council of Canada/…. | FILE NOJS§!- 159 NON ~-METEORITIC SIGHTING NATIONAL RES…
Later Ontario entries continued to appear in the NRC collection. Archived database records include sightings from communities such as Aurora, Ontario, illustrating how local reports were incorporated into the national file structure during the 1970s. [Library and Archives Canada]collectionscanada.gc.caLibrary and Archives Canada ARCHIVEDDocument…
Why the File Matters to Ontario UFO History
The significance of the Non-Meteoritic Sighting File is not that it proves unusual objects were present over Ontario. Its importance lies in what it reveals about government practice.
First, it preserved reports that might otherwise have vanished. Many Ontario sightings survive today because they entered federal files that were later transferred to Library and Archives Canada. Researchers can therefore examine original descriptions rather than relying solely on newspaper stories or later retellings. [Canada]canada.caCanada's UFOs: The search for the unknown2 Mar 2026 — Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Search Canada's UFOs: The search for the unkno…
Second, the file shows how Canadian officials increasingly treated UFO reporting as a matter of documentation rather than active investigation. The shift from defence-centred handling to NRC stewardship marks a transition from security concerns toward archival and scientific record keeping. [Collection Search]recherche-collection-search.bac-lac.gc.caIt took… Canada's UFOs: The search for the unknown." The reports for…Read more…
Third, the records provide a more balanced picture of Ontario’s UFO history. Many reports were ordinary observations that remained unidentified because information was incomplete. Others may have involved astronomical objects, aircraft, satellites or atmospheric effects. The archive preserves the uncertainty itself, allowing later readers to see what witnesses reported and how officials responded at the time. [Canada]canada.caCanada's UFOs: The search for the unknown2 Mar 2026 — Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Search Canada's UFOs: The search for the unkno…
Reading Ontario NRC Records Carefully
The strongest lesson from the Non-Meteoritic Sighting File is that an archived report is not the same thing as a confirmed mystery. Inclusion in the NRC collection generally meant that a sighting had been recorded and retained, not that it had been validated as extraordinary.
For Ontario researchers, the file is therefore most valuable as a documentary resource. It shows how reports moved through federal channels, what information officials considered important, and how Canada chose to preserve public UFO claims after defence agencies stepped back from the issue. Within the broader history of federal archives behind Ontario UFO cases, the NRC file represents the moment when UFO reporting became less about active defence scrutiny and more about maintaining a national record of unexplained observations. [Collection Search+2Canada]recherche-collection-search.bac-lac.gc.caIt took… Canada's UFOs: The search for the unknown." The reports for…Read more…
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Endnotes
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Link: https://www.canada.ca/en/library-archives/collection/research-help/science-technology/ufos.htmlSource snippet
Canada's UFOs: The search for the unknown2 Mar 2026 — Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Search Canada's UFOs: The search for the unkno...
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Title: sky canada project
Link: https://ised-isde.canada.ca/site/science/en/office-chief-science-advisor/sky-canada-projectSource snippet
ISED CanadaSky Canada Project3 Dec 2025 — The Sky Canada Project was launched in the Fall of 2022 to study how Unidentified Aerial Phenom...
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Title: ARCHIVE D
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Link: https://archive.org/stream/CanadaUFO/Canada%20-%20FOIA%20Part%2017%20-%20Pages%204801-5100_djvu.txtSource snippet
NOT RECEIVED ALL SIGHTING REPORTS BT National Research Council of Canada/.... | FILE NOJS§!- 159 NON ~-METEORITIC SIGHTING NATIONAL RES...
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Source: lac-bac.gc.ca
Title: Item Display
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Canada's UFOs: The Search for the UnknownDocument...
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Source: archives.gov
Title: Project BLUE BOOK
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The project closed in 1969 and we have no...Read more...
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Canada's Famous Officially Investigated UFO Incident | Shag Harbour UFO Incident【4K】...
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Link: https://recherche-collection-search.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/home/record?IdNumber=134925&app=FonAndColSource snippet
It took... Canada's UFOs: The search for the unknown." The reports for...Read more...
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Collection SearchHertzberg Institute of Astrophysics - Reports on non-meteoritic...Hertzberg Institute of Astrophysics - Reports on non...
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Active History10 Feb 2017 — Read a few UFO books that specifically mention Project Second Storey (and they are still few and far between[...
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17 Jul 2023 — Search for the Unknown explores the many accounts by Canadians of UFO sightings but also attempts to unpack the meaning beh...
Additional References
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Link: https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/21273403-canadian-government-releases-20-years-of-ufo-reports/Source snippet
Canadian Government Releases 20 Years of UFO ReportsCanadian Government Releases 20 Years of UFO Reports. File. File Text Pages Notes Res...
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Source: facebook.com
Title: fate of ufo investigators in the 1960s under the lens officers probing ufos died
Link: https://www.facebook.com/WIONews/posts/fate-of-ufo-investigators-in-the-1960s-under-the-lens-officers-probing-ufos-died/1332551805650657/Source snippet
Fate of UFO investigators in the 1960s under the lens...... UFOs and began to study cases of alien abductions.... Council actively debu...
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Source: utias.utoronto.ca
Title: 1960s dr gordon patterson establishes the utias ufo project
Link: https://www.utias.utoronto.ca/2018/08/15/1960s-dr-gordon-patterson-establishes-the-utias-ufo-project/Source snippet
Gordon Patterson establishes The UTIAS UFO...15 Aug 2018 — Gordon Patterson establishes The UTIAS UFO Project... The surge in internati...
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Source: science.gc.ca
Link: https://science.gc.ca/site/science/en/office-chief-science-advisor/sky-canada-project/management-public-reporting-unidentified-aerial-phenomena-canadaSource snippet
it investigated in 2023, 31% could not be conclusively explained due to...Read more...
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Source: digitalcollections.trentu.ca
Title: A History of Canada s UFO Investigation 1950 1995
Link: https://digitalcollections.trentu.ca/_flysystem/fedora/2022-04/A_History_of_Canada_s_UFO_Investigation_1950_1995.pdfSource snippet
history of canada's ufo investigation, 1950-19957 Apr 2022 — not only doing part-time research into UFOs, but was actively building a UFO...
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Source: Wikipedia
Title: List of reported UFO sightings
Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_reported_UFO_sightingsSource snippet
List of reported UFO sightingsThis is a list of notable reported sightings of unidentified flying objects (UFOs) some of which include...
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Source: Wikipedia
Title: UFO sightings in Canada
Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UFO_sightings_in_CanadaSource snippet
UFO sightings in CanadaBelow is a partial list of alleged sightings of unidentified flying objects or UFOs in Canada. According to a m...
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Source: thecanadianencyclopedia.ca
Title: ufos in canada
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20 Oct 2020 — For 45 years, the Canadian government investigated unidentified flying objects (UFOs). Several of its departments and agenc...
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Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oK-mqAUdQ7QSource snippet
UFOs over Canada? Government urged to start tracking | The Current...
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