Canadian Orders, Medals and Decorations

The Victoria Cross - For most conspicuous bravery or some daring or pre-eminent act of valour or self-sacrifice or extreme devotion to duty in the presence of the enemy. There have been 1,351 Victoria Crosses awarded worldwide, 94 to Canadians.

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When people think of medals, the image most people conjour is that of veterans gathered for Remembrance Day. But while these honours are generally associated with military service, civilian equivalents exist to honour exceptional contributions to the nation in time of war, or for outstanding acts of citizenship.

Canadian Orders, Medals and Decorations is part of the Veteran Affairs of Canada website. This particular section discusses the various war medals Canadians soldiers have earned throughout the course of its history. Also included on the page are civilian medals that ordinary people have earned for acts of bravery and selflessness.

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This website does not fit into the curriculum in any specific place, but I still think it would be useful in a high school or elementary class.

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I would use this site when having a specific guest speaker come into the class. One of the most inspiring classes I was ever part of was a Canadian History class that covered the two World Wars. My teacher did not believe in just "reading the text" or "watching A&E video's". He wanted us to experience history ourselves.

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One class he had a guest speaker come in. After all these years I cannot remember the man's name but he was a World War II veteran. The gentleman brought in all his war medals (including the Military Medal, The War Medal 1939-1945 and many more I'm forgetting now. He had 15 or twenty overall) along with bullet shells, his uniform and a Nazi dagger.

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This website would allow students to research the reasons a veteran would be awarded the various medals and from there they could prepare a series of questions. Now with many World War II veterans in their 80's now it might be impractical to have one of them come to a school and speak, but the website covers Korea to the present day United Nations Peacekeeping medals.