The former minister who spoke of aliens
The account
A former Canadian defence minister supposedly revealed that UFOs are real and that governments hide contact with aliens.
What investigators found
Hellyer never presented documents or evidence; his claims were based on reading and on accounts from others.
The story
Paul Hellyer was Canada's Minister of National Defence in the 1960s and, in 1967, opened the UFO landing pad in St. Paul. In September 2005, long retired, he surprised the audience at a symposium in Toronto by saying that UFOs were as real as the airplanes flying over our heads.
In the years that followed, Hellyer went further, claiming that several alien species were visiting Earth and that governments were hiding their technologies. He died in 2021 without presenting evidence. His former post gave the subject enormous visibility, but he himself said he had not dealt with the matter while he was in government.