Medal of Bravery

• Awarded on: December 10, 1998
• Invested on: December 03, 1999

On August 20, 1996 in Toronto, Ontario, Cst. Mark Ashley of the Toronto Police Service, rescued a suicidal man who had ventured 10 metres out on a narrow beam that crossed an open air shaft at the ninth floor level of a parking garage. While a colleague distracted the distraught man, Cst. Ashley inched his way on the sixty-metre-high beam to within three meters of the victim and attempted to calm the agitated man despite the noise of the high winds which made conversation extremely difficult. The two balanced precariously in this position some twenty minutes until Cst. Ashley managed to win the man's confidence and convince him to come down to safety.