In 2005, a former Canadian cabinet minister stood up at a public event and said the US government had been secretly recovering non-human craft for decades. He named alien species. He said governments were covering it up. Everyone laughed. His name was Paul Hellyer. And eighteen years later, a decorated US intelligence officer said basically the same thing — under oath, before Congress. This episode is about the Canadian who called it first, why it matters, and what it tells us about where we are now.

Paul Hellyer was Canada's Minister of National Defence in the 1960s. He unified the Canadian Armed Forces. He served under Lester B. Pearson and Pierre Trudeau. He was, by any measure, a serious person with serious credentials.

And in 2005 — at 82 years old — he became the first cabinet-level minister of a G8 nation in history to publicly say that UFOs are real, governments know it, and the suppression of that information is one of the great injustices of the modern era.

He was called a conspiracy theorist. He kept saying it anyway. Until he died in 2021 at 98.

This episode looks at what he actually claimed, where his information came from, and how those claims look in 2026 — now that Pentagon insiders with verified classified credentials are saying the same things he was.

SHOW NOTES / RESOURCES:

Paul Hellyer — watch these:

→ Paul Hellyer — Citizens Hearing on Disclosure, Washington DC, 2013 (YouTube) — his most detailed public statement

→ Paul Hellyer — RT Interview, January 2014 (YouTube) — the species claims in full

→ Paul Hellyer — In-Depth Interview at his residence, 2017 (YouTube): youtube.com/watch?v=3PPDHaIkVYA

→ Paul Hellyer — Final interview raw footage (YouTube): youtube.com/watch?v=5pv3AuHG1LA

The corroboration:

→ Dr. Hal Puthoff — Diary of a CEO podcast, May 2026 — search on YouTube or your podcast app

→ David Grusch congressional testimony, July 26 2023 — full testimony on YouTube

→ The Debrief: "Intelligence Officials Say U.S. Has Retrieved Craft of Non-Human Origin" — June 5 2023, thedebrief.org

Background on Hellyer:

→ The Canadian Encyclopedia — Paul Hellyer biography: thecanadianencyclopedia.ca

→ Parliament of Canada biographical record: parl.gc.ca

Book referenced in this episode:

→ "The Day After Roswell" — Colonel Philip Corso (1997) — the book that triggered Hellyer's public statements. Available on Amazon.

Further reading:

→ "Light at the End of the Tunnel" — Paul Hellyer (2010) — his own account of his UFO research and conclusions

In 2004, US Navy pilots encountered something off the coast of San Diego that they couldn't explain. In 2017, the New York Times put it on the front page. The Pentagon confirmed it was real. And the world kind of shrugged. This episode is about the Tic Tac — what happened, why it mattered, and why even after everything that's followed, people still don't seem to care that much. Plus: what Canada has quietly been doing while all of this unfolds in Washington.

The Tic Tac encounter is the moment the modern UAP conversation went mainstream. Navy pilots. Pentagon confirmation. New York Times front page. It should have been earth-shattering. And in some ways it was — but the general public reaction was a lot of "huh, interesting" before moving on.

Since then, the evidence has only stacked higher. Congressional hearings. Whistleblowers testifying under oath. The White House releasing classified files. And yet Capital D Disclosure — the moment someone in a suit stands at a podium and says here's what we know — still hasn't happened.

This episode also asks: while all of this is unfolding in Washington, what is Canada doing? The answer is more interesting than you might think. And more frustrating.

SHOW NOTES / RESOURCES:

The Tic Tac encounter:

→ David Fravor on 60 Minutes (2021) — the clearest, most accessible account of what happened. Search "Fravor 60 Minutes" on YouTube.

→ David Fravor on Joe Rogan Experience #1361 — longer, more detailed, great listen

→ NewsNation: "The Tic Tac incident — inside one of the most consequential UFO encounters of all time" — newsnationnow.com

→ The original New York Times article, December 16 2017: "Glowing Auras and Black Money: The Pentagon's Mysterious UFO Program" — nytimes.com

David Grusch:

→ House Oversight Committee hearing, July 26 2023 — full testimony on YouTube

→ The Debrief original reporting, June 5 2023: thedebrief.org — first major outlet to break the Grusch story

→ Grusch on Capitol steps, June 9 2026 — YouTube

The PURSUE files:

→ Pentagon PURSUE portal: aaro.mil

→ CBS News coverage of second tranche release, May 2026

Canada's UAP situation:

→ VICE: "The Canadian Military Is Quietly Logging UFO Sightings" — available via vice.com search

→ CBC: Canada's history of UFO documentation — search "CBC UFO Canada ATIP"

→ Sky Canada Project report, July 2025 — Office of the Chief Science Advisor of Canada: science.gc.ca

→ CTV News: "UFO conference lands in Canada as Trump administration continues to release documents" — ctvnews.ca, June 15 2026

Hi, I'm Peter. I live in Burnaby BC and I've been obsessed with UFOs basically my whole life. This is the first episode of the Canadian UFO Podcast — a show about the UFO and UAP conversation happening right now, told from a Canadian perspective. We're not here to debate whether this stuff is real. That debate, in my opinion, is over. We're here to catch you up — and to ask why Canada has been so quiet while the rest of the world is talking.

In the first episode of the Canadian UFO Podcast, host Peter introduces himself, the show, and the question driving Season 1: why, in the most significant moment in UFO history, is Canada essentially silent?

Peter talks about growing up obsessed with the X-Files, finding a YouTube video in a Yaletown condo in 2006 that changed how he thought about all of this, and the embarrassing realization — after years of consuming UFO content — that he knew almost nothing about Canada's own history with the phenomenon.

This isn't a debate show. The phenomenon is real. Governments know about it. Credible people are saying so under oath. The question now is what it means — and where Canada fits in.

SHOW NOTES / RESOURCES:

Where to start if this is new to you:

→ "The Phenomenon" (2020) — James Fox documentary. The best single entry point for the modern UFO conversation. Available on Amazon Prime.

→ "Age of Disclosure" (2024) — 34 government insiders on camera. Available on Amazon Prime.

→ David Grusch congressional testimony, July 26 2023 — watch it on YouTube. Search "Grusch Congress testimony 2023." Under oath. Remarkable.

→ Grusch on Capitol steps, June 9 2026 — search "Grusch Capitol 2026" on YouTube for the most recent statement.

The PURSUE system — Pentagon's public UAP file release:

→ Pentagon PURSUE portal: aaro.mil

→ Initial release coverage: ABC News, May 8 2026

The show Peter mentions finding in Yaletown:

→ Paul Hellyer — Citizens Hearing on Disclosure, Washington DC, 2013 (YouTube)

→ Paul Hellyer — RT Interview, January 2014 (YouTube) — this is likely the video Peter found

Canadian UFO history resources:

→ Library and Archives Canada UFO Collection: bac-lac.gc.ca — nearly 10,000 digitized government documents, free and public

→ Chris Rutkowski / Ufology Research — Canada's most prolific UFO researcher: ufologyresearch.blogspot.com