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Special Service Medal

Frequently seen on dress occasions — nearly 77,000 were presented from 1984 to June 2012 — this medal recognizes Canadian Forces members who have served under exceptional circumstances in defined locations. It is always issued with a bar specifying the service being recognized — in this case a tour while posted to a NATO unit or a Canadian unit under control of a NATO headquarters. Other bars may say ALERT, PAKISTAN, HUMANITAS, RANGER, EXPEDITION or PEACE. Formed from copper and zinc alloy, the medal bears a maple leaf within a laurel leaf on the obverse and the Royal Crown and Cypher and inscription SPECIAL SERVICE SPÉCIAL on the reverse.

Canadian Peacekeeping Service Medal

The awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to all UN peacekeepers in 1988 inspired the creation of this medal to acknowledge the contributions of Canadian peacekeepers since 1947. That group now numbers 125,000, the most of any nation. On the face of the round medal are three figures of unarmed observers and the words PEACEKEEPING and SERVICE DE LA PAIX; on the reverse are the Queen’s Cypher on a maple leaf and the word CANADA. The ribbon’s central stripe is the official blue of the United Nations. The green represents service, the white is the colour of peace and the red signifies blood shed in the service of peace. Some 75,000 peacekeeping medals have been awarded.

NATO Medal for Kosovo

Canadians who served between October 1998 and December 2002 in the NATO mission in Kosovo, a breakaway province of the former Yugoslav Federal Republic, are eligible for this bronze medal. Suspended from its ribbon by a large ring, the medal bears the NATO star set in a wreath of olive leaves on its obverse and the words North Atlantic Treaty Organization and In the service of peace and freedom in English and French on the reserve. It is always issued with a bar inscribed KOSOVO. Canadians who served in the theatre after December 2002 instead get the NATO Medal for Operations in the Balkans.