Medal of Bravery

• Awarded on: June 17, 1991
• Invested on: December 13, 1991

Clem Paul attempted to save two men whose snowmobile had broken through the thin ice of Harding Lake, north of Yellowknife, Northwest Territories on November 11, 1990. Following some distance behind his friends, Mr. Paul immediately stopped his snowmobile, unhooked the sleigh and, using a gun case, paddled furiously over 30 metres of open, frigid water to the victims. Just before he arrived, one man disappeared below the surface and the other was rapidly losing consciousness. Unable to lift the second man onto the unstable sleigh, Mr. Paul tied him to the rear and made the exhausting trip back towards the shore where others in the hunting party threw a rope out to tow the sleigh onto solid ice. Mr. Paul and the victim were taken to a cabin where they awaited a rescue helicopter.