This general service award was created as a means to recognize in a timely manner those who serve in or provide support to overseas operations and for which other medals, such as UN or NATO medals, are not available (see paragraph 10).
Regulations governing the award of the medal are reprinted in Annex O, Appendix 1.
Qualifying dates and theatre boundaries
The Operational Service Medal (OSM) is always issued with a ribbon specific to the theatre or type of service being recognized, and each ribbon has its own criteria (refer to Annex O, Appendixes 2 to 7).
The start dates, criteria and theatre boundaries are outlined in the Orders in Council (OIC) establishing each ribbon respectively (refer to Annex O, Appendixes 2 to 7).
The time criteria for the OSM is amended as follows from the respective effective date indicated. All time is cumulative:
MEDAL & RIBBON
FORMER CRITERIA
NEW CRITERIA
EFFECTIVE DATE
OSM-SOUTH-WEST ASIA
30 Days
21 days
13 March 2014
OSM-SIERRA LEONE
30 Days
21 days
17 February 2013
OSM-HAITI
30 Days
21 days
1 July 2017
OSM-SUDAN
30 Days
21 days
30 July 2016
OSM-HUMANITAS
30 Days
14 days
28 April 2015
OSM-EXPEDITION
30 Days
21 days
15 May 2014
Eligible personnel
The OSM may be awarded to the following personnel who served in a theatre of operations, provided direct support on a full-time basis to operations conducted in such a theatre, or served under dangerous circumstances outside Canada:
Members of the CF.
Members of allied forces serving with the CF.
Members of recognized Canadian police forces and allied police officers working with them.
Members of the Public Service and Canadian civilians under contract with the GC who served in the above mentioned conditions at the initiative, by the nomination or with the agreement of the GC.
Applications
Those Canadian citizens who accept contracts directly with an international body (such as the UN or NATO) or work or volunteer with a non-governmental organization are not eligible for recognition as they do not serve at the behest of the Crown.
In order to receive Canadian recognition, the requirement is that the person must be in the service of the Crown either as a sworn police officer deployed under the authority of the RCMP, a Public Servant or a person under direct personal service contract with the Canadian Government deployed at the initiative, by the nomination or with the agreement of the GC.
To be eligible, service and direct support must be performed under exceptional circumstances and the person must have been deployed specifically to provide that service or support on a full-time basis to the operations. Only when there is a certain level of risk, threat, hardship or operational intensity can the Medal be awarded. Any service or support that is comparable in nature to normal duty or that is performed from the relative safety of a country distant from the theatre or area is excluded from eligibility.
The OSM is awarded only when the said service has not been otherwise recognized by a service medal other than the Canadian Peacekeeping Service Medal (CPSM) where applicable.
The Medal and Rotation Bars shall be awarded for honourable service.
Bar(s)
Rotation Bars are awarded to recognize further days of eligible service. The first Rotation Bar is awarded after a total of 210 eligible days, including the days taken into account for the medal itself. Each subsequent Bar recognizes a further 180 days of eligible service following qualification for the Medal or the last Rotation Bar the person has earned.
