Invite AFFA to Land

On February 20, 1954, according to a story that has been told and retold in the United States, President Dwight Eisenhower slipped away from a winter vacation in Palm Springs to be secretly driven to nearby Edwards Air Force base, and then known as Muroc field. There, in a prearranged meeting, he met with live aliens who landed to talk to him. In the same year the story is that prince Philip of the British Royal family also met with an extraterrestrial through the efforts of a retired general.

The year seemed to be the year for the meeting of planetary cultures, because there is also a story about Canada trying the same thing. The difference with the Canadian story is that the Canadian government actually admits part of their role in the Canadian effort to land an alien for a meeting. In fact, the initial announcement of the affair came not from some researcher leak, but from the Canadian government itself.

 The year was 1967, and it was the 100^th anniversary of Canada as a country. Many cities and towns built special buildings and tourist attraction to celebrate the centennial. In St. Paul, Alberta, their idea was to build a UFO landing base. When the day came for it to be opened, none other then the then Minister of Defense showed up to cut the ribbon.

 During his time at the opening Defense Minister Paul Hellyer would tell a story that would go down as one of the best UFO stories ever. Through a defense department official (identified by Hellyer as the Department expert on UFOs) tell as story that would turn out to be pretty accurate.

 In the Canadian government version of the story a Top Secret Project had been set up, in which UFOs would be allowed to land at the Defense research Board experimental Station at Suffield, Alberta. The base is the Canadian equivalent to Area-51. Here in a one thousand mile restricted tract of land the Canadian carried out chemical weapon tests and all other forms of secret things. The base was completely isolated and like Area-51 had a restricted no fly zone over it. As it was on flat ground there was no worry of people getting up in top the mountains to look down at what they were doing. 

There was according to the Canadian government story, as told by Minister Hellyer, a special committee attached to a Top Secret UFO project. This is a revelation, as Smith’s Project Magnet was always seen as the official top government program, but was only classified at the “secret’ level. It appeared that the committee referred to by Hellyer had to be independent of Magnet.

Project Second Storey, the Department of Defense Investigation into UFOs was also only classified at the “Secret’ level. It appeared that it too could not be the committee Hellyer was referring to. Further prove that this was not the committee came from Dr. Peter Millman who was the chairman of the Second Storey committee, denied he was involved. He told me in a letter, “I certainly have heard vague rumors about some attempt to build a UFO landing site in western Canada, but that was absolutely all I knew about it.

The actual identity of the committee will probably always remain as mystery, as the Canadian government claimed the committee records were destroyed in 1957. In 1979, despite the 1967 declaration of the landing base by the Defense Minister, even the story itself disappeared. Yurko Bandarchuk, a Canadian researcher, was told, “we have no record of any such project and… from the information I have, we never had one.”

 The Canadian government version of the story is as follows. “Several groups became convinced that some unknown beings were trying to make contact with the Earth. One group made a strong representation to the committee . . .because there had been attempts made by Canadian and U.S. Air forces planes to shoot down the UFOs the flying saucers were reluctant to land.’

 “It was argued,” continued Hellyer, “if there was ever to be any contact, the hazards had to be removed. The UFOs had to be provided with a safe place. Accordingly, in an effort to give the ‘believers’ a chance to demonstrate the existence of the flying saucers trying to make contact with the earth, the defense Research Board was designated as a landing area. The step brought no results . . . insofar as the committee was concerned no evidence had been produced to prove their existence.”

The story printed in many papers in July 1967 brought almost no reaction from the UFO community. Not until the late 1970s did people start to chase down the story. I picked up on the story and began to put the story in front of Smith inner circle members as well as writing to Paul Hellyer. Unknown to me was the fact that Arthur Bray, the man who held the smith files, was also writing Hellyer asking him for a full explanation of what had occurred.

Of the many people that I put the story to, only Mrs. Smith knew the story fully and was prepared to talk about what had really happened. During my 1978 interview of Mrs. Smith I showed her the Winnipeg Free Press article telling of the statements that had been made by Minister Paul Hellyer at the UFO base opening in St. Paul in 1967. I asked Mrs. Smith if Wilbert had been involved.

She read the article over carefully and then said, “Yes, Wilbert was involved.”

In her version of the story this is what happened. Smith had always wanted a chance to convince the government that the aliens existed, and he believed strongly that the government should talk to the aliens face-to-face to learn all the elements beyond the simple reality of the aliens, such as where they are from and what they are doing here.

Smith believed that if the government would stop shooting at the objects he might be able to get AFFA to land for a meeting. He approached what Mrs. Smith identified as the government. The three members according to her were the R.C.M.P., the department of Defense, and the Prime Minister. This may have been the Top Secret committee referred to by Hellyer.

 In contacts that were made through Mrs. Frances swan, a contactee in Elliot, Maine, Smith was informed by AFFA that in order to land he would have to have protection against being shot down. This part of the story is actually told in an FBI document detailing the FBI’s investigation of Mrs. Swan.

According to Mrs. Smith, Wilbert Smith put this demand to the government or committee, and the committee agreed no one would shoot AFFA’s ship down. Up to this point both sides were telling the same story, and there are documents to prove these events did occur.

 Following this AFFA, through Mrs. Swan, demanded that once he had landed and talked to whoever was there to meet him, he would be allowed to take off without any interference. The R.C.M.P. agreed to this, but when Smith approached what was described to me as the “government” a cabinet meeting was held to discuss AFFA’s demand. When the meeting was over the “government” could not give a 100% guarantee that AFFA would be allowed to take off once he had landed at Suffield. Smith immediately called off the planned landing. That is the story Mrs. Smith told.

I placed many requests to the R.C.M.P. and the defense department for requests for information or documents on the Top Secret UFO committee. All requests came back that they had no information. I requested a ministerial inquiry from parliamentary representative Lloyd Axworthy. Axworthy never did spell out what actions he had taken to force action, but stated to me on two occasions, “I can’t help you.”

In order to resolve the story both Arthur Bray and myself pursued Mr. Hellyer for further details. Some of the questions we wanted answers for were:

1.        Canada is a big country. How did the aliens know where to land? The government version lacks this critical detail.

2.        Who was the Defense department expert who originally told Hellyer the story? The man had reportedly been a R.C.M.P. officer in 1954, and had moved up to a senior high-level defense department official in 1967. (This confirms Mrs. Smith’s contention that the R.C.M.P. was involved even though it is simply a federal police force)

 In reply to the many requests for information, Hellyer did confirm that he had told the story in 1967. He further remembered the top defense official who had told him the story and who had created quite a UFO file for Hellyer. He, however, could not remember his name, and he could not find the UFO file.

 The cat and mouse game with Hellyer continued for years. Hellyer claimed at one point that he had even searched his files in vain at the national Archives in Ottawa searching for the UFO file. Try as he might, he could also never remember the name of the official who had told him the story.

 In a letter to me Paul Hellyer concluded the affair this way, “I can assure you there is no UFO cover up, at least on our side of the border.”