Canadian members of Parliament are urging the government to pay more attention to recent U.S. news about 鈥渦nidentified aerial phenomena,鈥� or UAP: a term used for what are more commonly known as unidentified flying objects and UFOs.
According to Conservative MP Larry Maguire and a Texas-based researcher, at least three Canadian politicians have now sought UAP briefings from former Pentagon officials.
鈥淲hen you see the information that's come out of the United States, you'd have to take it seriously,鈥� Maguire told CTV News from his Ottawa office. 鈥淲e need to have a parallel program to what the United States already has.鈥�
On Tuesday, a pair of senior U.S. military officials testified during the first public congressional hearing on UFOs in more than 50 years.
鈥淲e know that our service members have encountered unidentified aerial phenomena,鈥� Ronald Moultrie, who oversees the , said . 鈥淲e're open to any conclusions that we may encounter.鈥�
Earlier this month, CTVNews.ca revealed former Canadian defence minister Harjit Sajjan also received a UFO briefing ahead of the June 2021 release of an unclassified U.S. intelligence report on recent military sightings, which have included UAP that appeared to 鈥渕aneuver abruptly, or move at considerable speed, without discernable means of propulsion.鈥� , and have also filed reports in Canada.
鈥淲e need to identify the origins and the intent of these UAPs, and that certainly can't hurt anything,鈥� Maguire said Tuesday.
Maguire鈥檚 office states it arranged a Feb. 16, 2021 briefing for the Manitoba MP and another Conservative parliamentarian with Luis Elizondo, a former U.S. Army counterintelligence officer who before resigning from the Pentagon in 2017.
鈥淢r. Maguire is absolutely correct in his concern, because he knows that these reports do occur,鈥� Elizondo told CTV News from Wyoming on Tuesday. 鈥淚 think the time has come for us to have an open and honest dialogue about this topic without fear of retribution, without stigma and associated taboo.鈥�
Maguire has penned a and has even used his committee work to . Earlier this year, Maguire鈥檚 office arranged another briefing with members of the (SCU), an international think tank dedicated to applying scientific methods to UAP research.
Engineer and founding SCU board member Robert Powell was part of that Jan. 28 meeting and says he also participated in an Oct. 20, 2021 briefing for a Liberal member of Parliament.
鈥淏oth MPs were very interested in the subject,鈥� Powell told CTVNews.ca from Austin, Texas. 鈥淭he main thing I try to get across in these types of meetings is basically to give them as good an understanding as I can of the history and the current status of the UAP subject.鈥�
According to Powell, the Oct. 2021 UAP briefing with the Liberal MP included former Pentagon intelligence official Christopher Mellon.
鈥淲e have no idea where they鈥檙e coming from or what their capabilities are, or what their intent is,鈥� Mellon told CTV News in a . Mellon did not respond to a request to comment on this story.
Internal briefing documents obtained by CTVNews.ca state the Canadian Armed Forces 鈥渄oes not typically investigate sightings of unexplained phenomena outside the context of investigating potential threats or distress.鈥�
Meanwhile in the U.S., Pentagon UFO programs have operated for years. Questions about the national security implications of sightings have even sparked rare cooperation between Democrats and Republicans, which was evident during and with a late 2021 Senate initiative to .
鈥淥ne of the interesting and noteworthy points about the study of UAPs is that everything I have seen both in Canada and the United States is that there is no partisanship on this question,鈥� Powell said. 鈥淎ll parties seem to be interested in this subject, and it鈥檚 not a political issue.鈥�
鈥淚f there's any issue that we can be nonpartisan on in Canada, it should be this one,鈥� Maguire added.
Ontario NDP MP Matthew Green agrees, saying Canada has nothing to lose by investigating UAP.
鈥淚f the testimony coming out of the States provides the public with a glimpse into the seriousness in which they鈥檙e taking it, then I think it would be well-advised for us to follow in the same pursuit,鈥� Green told CTVNews.ca on Tuesday from Ottawa. 鈥淚f they鈥檙e having public hearings of this nature, I can only begin to imagine what they already privately know.鈥�
With files from CTV National News field producer William Dugan
