In the afternoon of 6 January 1983, Cst. Robert McAuley of the R.C.M.P. Cumberland House Detachment saved a mother and her child from drowning in the Bigstone River near Cumberland House, Saskatchewan. Responding to an emergency call, Cst. McAuley hurried down to the shore and saw a woman frantically clinging to broken ice, struggling against the strong current. Without thought of danger to himself, he crawled approximately ten metres over the thin ice to reach the drowning woman. As he began to pull her from the icy water, her young son's head appeared above the surface. Cst. McAuley lifted the unconscious child onto the ice, then helped the woman to safety. He applied cardio-pulmonary resuscitation and was successful in reviving the child.