The criteria to award The Victoria Cross is incredibly strict. There hasn’t been one awarded in Canada since WWII and in total there have only been 99 awarded to Canadians. Many were awarded posthumously. In 1996 I had the honour to shake the hand of a Victoria Cross recipient at the Seaforth Highlander Regiment armouries in Vancouver. The stories of how these Soldiers earned their medals are absolutely incredible and can be found here:
http://www.veterans.gc.ca/eng/rememb...oss-recipients
There are other medals that are awarded for acts of bravery such as the Military Medal. My Grandfather was a recipient in WWI. He was awarded it on a Militray parade by a very high ranking General. I know of three Soldiers that I served with in the ‘90’s that have been awarded a medal for bravery (not sure which one). They were invited to a reception in Ottawa and were awarded the medal by the Governor General.
The short story is that Canadians have a very strict criteria for bravery medals and don’t award as many medals for individual acts of bravery as some other countries.