Paul Hellyer: The Former Defence Minister Who Spoke Out on UFOs

Hellyer was born in Ontario in 1923 and served in the Second World War. He was first elected to the House of Commons as a Liberal from Toronto in 1949, becoming one of the youngest members of Parliament at the time. He served as a junior defence minister in the 1950s before the Liberals lost power.

When Lester B. Pearson became prime minister in 1963, Hellyer was appointed Minister of National Defence, a post he held until 1967. He then became Minister of Transport, ran unsuccessfully for the Liberal leadership in 1968 against Pierre Trudeau, and served as deputy prime minister before resigning from cabinet in 1969 over housing policy. He later sat briefly as a Progressive Conservative and founded his own small parties.

Hellyer’s defining achievement as defence minister was integrating and then unifying the separate services. His 1964 white paper on defence set out the plan, and the Canadian Forces Reorganization Act, passed in 1967 and in force in early 1968, merged the Royal Canadian Navy, the Canadian Army and the Royal Canadian Air Force into one organisation with a common uniform.

The reform was fiercely opposed by many senior officers and veterans, and parts of it were later reversed, including the restoration of the historic service names in 2011. Whatever one thinks of it, it made Hellyer one of the most consequential defence ministers in Canadian history.

In September 2005, Hellyer spoke at a public event in Toronto and said that he believed UFOs were real and that extraterrestrial craft had visited Earth. He called on governments to release what they knew. His remarks were reported by Canadian media and quickly spread internationally, largely because of his former office.

Hellyer said that his interest had developed after he left politics, including after watching a television documentary and reading about the subject, notably books by other disclosure advocates. By his own account, as minister he had not paid attention to UFO reports and had not been briefed on any secret programme.

Over the following years Hellyer’s statements grew broader. In speeches, interviews and his writing he said, among other things:

Hellyer did not present documents, physical evidence or first-hand official knowledge to support these claims. He relied on the accounts of others, including people describing themselves as insiders, and on his own conviction that the testimony was credible. He appeared at events such as the 2013 Citizen Hearing on Disclosure in Washington, a privately organised event at which former members of Congress heard testimony.

Supporters regarded him as a courageous senior figure willing to break a taboo. Critics pointed out that his former position gave his opinions attention they would not otherwise have received, and that his claims were not based on anything he learned in government. Both points can be true at once.

Hellyer died in August 2021 at the age of 98. Obituaries in Canada focused mainly on his role in unifying the armed forces and his long public career, with his UFO advocacy usually mentioned as a notable late chapter.

In the UFO community his name remains a staple of lists of senior officials who have spoken out, and his statements helped prepare the ground for the more mainstream congressional interest in unidentified anomalous phenomena that emerged in the United States after his death.