Two New Brunswickers received a medal of bravery last week from Canada’s governor-general for their acts of heroism.
Jacob Fournier-Barnaby, of Shediac Cape, N.B., and Peter Slipp, of Fredericton, each received honours at the ceremony.
Fournier-Barnaby saved his mother from an armed assailant in Grande-Digue, N.B. in late November 2015. The woman’s ex-husband broke into her home with a rifle.
A release states Fournier-Barnaby, then 16, heard cries for help, grabbed a heavy dumbbell and bolted upstairs from the home’s basement, where he found the assailant strangling his mother.
He approached the man from behind and hit him over the head with the dumbbell, which caused him to collapse on the floor. Fournier-Barnaby and his mother ran out of the house.
The man was later apprehended by police.
Meanwhile, Slipp rescued a man from a burning building in Brackley, P.E.I. in July 2019. Slipp arrived with his family at Brackley Beach Northwinds Inn when they saw the front staircase covered in flames.
Slipp ran along the two floors of the inn, banging on doors to alert occupants. He located a husband and wife on the second floor and directed them to the stairwell of an emergency exit.
As black smoke and fire encircled the stairwell, Slipp helped guide the husband down before the man suddenly collapsed near the foot of the stairs.
With help from the man’s wife, Slipp moved him to a safer location.
The award is one of Canada’s most respected and prestigious civilian honours and was given to a total of 40 recipients this year at a ceremony held at Rideau Hall on Sept. 9.
A full list of those honoured can be found here.