Medal of Bravery

• Awarded on: October 23, 2003
• Invested on: June 25, 2004

On the night of June 10, 1999, in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Quebec, Chantal Dufort helped evacuate four women and six children from a women's shelter after a man wielding a rifle broke in to kill his wife and set fire to the shelter. After getting past the agitated man, who was pointing the rifle at her, Ms. Dufort raced upstairs to the second floor to tell the occupants to leave the building, before escaping through a back door and sounding the alarm. When informed that some residents were still missing, Ms. Dufort went back inside, in spite of continual gunfire, where she found the women huddled together in a second-floor bedroom, and managed to escort them outside just before help arrived.