Master Corporal Christian Pierre Jonathan Bédard, M.B.
Medal of Bravery
On November 19, 2010, Master Corporal Christian Bédard risked his life to rescue a colleague during a training exercise off Halifax, Nova Scotia. The exercise's goal was to train the men to board a moving vessel from a smaller craft at sea. The victim lost his footing on a wire ladder leading up to the larger vessel, and became entangled, upside-down, near the water line. Master Corporal Bédard leaped onto an adjacent ladder and, with great difficulty, reached up to hold onto the victim. The man struggled to untangle himself as the wind and strong waves kept banging the smaller craft into the side of the larger ship. As the victim slipped free, both men fell from their precarious position into the frigid water, but were rescued shortly thereafter.