Case file · Government program
Project Magnet (Canada)
A Transport Canada UFO study led by radio engineer Wilbert B. Smith, officially active from 1950 to 1954.
1950 CE · 45.35, -75.88 · status: official
The account
Smith set up instruments, including a magnetometer station at Shirley's Bay near Ottawa, hoping to detect saucers. He came to believe that UFOs were probably extraterrestrial and worked by manipulating magnetism, and continued unofficially until his death in 1962.
The sceptical view
The government never endorsed Smith's conclusions. The one instrument 'hit', in 1954, was ambiguous, and the station was closed soon afterwards.