Minister of Defence Anita Anand arrives for a two-day meeting of the alliance’s Defence Ministers at the NATO headquarters in Brussels on Feb. 14, 2023. (Kenzo Tribouillard/AFP via Getty Images)
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The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is assisting Canada with the wreckage of the unidentified object that was shot down over Yukon on Feb. 11, said Defence Minister Anita Anand on Feb. 14.
“We have a number of aircraft on the ground, in the air, and people on the ground. We have RCMP, we have FBI assistance, and we have obviously Canadian Armed Forces members that are assisting with this effort,” Anand said while speaking with reporters in Brussels.
She later added there’s “intense collaboration” on the analysis of the debris, which has yet to be recovered, and repeated that the FBI is involved.
The FBI was contacted to find out which unit or field office is involved and in what numbers but it declined to comment.
A request for comment to the RCMP about FBI involvement was not answered by publication time.
The Epoch Times also contacted the U.S. Department of Defence to learn if it’s involved in the search efforts, with personnel, vehicles or satellites, but didn’t immediately hear back.
The Canadian Department of National Defence deferred to Public Safety Canada (PSC) when asked about U.S. military involvement. PSC did not provide an immediate response.
The Conservative Official Opposition has criticized U.S. involvement in the shoot-down of the unauthorized and unidentified object in northwestern Canada.
“We do not have the capacity to defend ourselves and our sovereignty,” tweeted Conservative MP and foreign affairs critic Michael Chong on Feb. 11.
Fighter jets deployed from U.S. Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Alaska were closer to the scene than those stationed in Cold Lake, Alberta. But Canadian Armed Forces Major General Paul Prévost said on Feb. 13 that CF-188 fighter jets were minutes away from the area when the U.S. F-22 fighter engaged the target.
“It was a very much based on the context and the situations of who was there, who had the capacity to do it before we lost the object into darkness or into situations,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Feb. 13, stressing on the collaborative nature of continental defence through the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD).
Anand said the shoot-down was NORAD’s first operation, probably meaning first kinetic operation.
She also declined to speak about a potential pattern, given three other floating objects that have been taken down in recent days over North America, including the Chinese spy balloon on Feb. 4.
“In terms of patterns, I personally am reluctant to make a statement along those lines at this point. It is very early, we have not yet recovered the debris, we have not yet examined that wreckage, and I am a person that likes to deal in facts,” Anand said.
Trudeau took a different stance, saying “obviously there is some sort of pattern in there.”
Prévost described the objects, other than the Chinese balloon, as “lighter than air” and moving along air currents. He said there was no information available on their capabilities or if they were carrying payloads.
NORAD Commander General Glen VanHerck said on Feb. 12 he wouldn’t categorize the objects as “balloons,” but said he is unable to describe how they stay aloft.
“It could be a gaseous type of balloon inside a structure or it could be some type of a propulsion system. But clearly, they’re able to stay aloft,” he said.