The complainant alleged that National Defence (DND) did not conduct a reasonable search in response to an access request under the Access to Information Act for all documents held by two named individuals that pertain to reports of, or deal with the general subject of, unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP). The complaint falls within paragraph 30(1)(a) of the Act.

The investigation determined that the Office of Primary Interest misread the access request text and also unnecessarily limited their search to a keyword search. The Office of the Information Commissioner requested DND to perform an additional tasking and search for records, which resulted in the retrieval of additional 11 pages of records.

The Information Commissioner ordered that DND give access to all additional responsive records, unless access to them may be refused under a specific provision of the Act, and to provide a new response no later than 36 business days after the date of the final report.

DND gave notice to the Commissioner that it would be implementing the orders.

The complaint is well founded.