Medal of Bravery

• Awarded on: July 26, 1982
• Invested on: October 06, 1982

In the mid-afternoon of 12 December 1980 Gaétan Fortin, though an inexperienced helicopter pilot, received an urgent call by the Quebec Provincial Police. When asked to airlift a man who had partly severed his right leg with a chain-saw to such an extent that he might bleed to death, Mr. Fortin agreed without hesitation. Bad weather, darkness, and the difficulty of finding a makeshift landing- strip in the dense woodland of the Saint-Antoine-Abbé region, hampered his efforts. But he landed the helicopter on precarious ground, took the seriously injured man aboard and brought him to the hospital.