A silver bar (often called a clasp), a maple leaf at its centre, was awarded for 60 days service outside Canada.

The Canadian Volunteer Service Medal was instituted October 1943.On the obverse seven men and women in the uniforms of the various services, marching in step and the reverse the Canadian national arms.

Awarded for eighteen months voluntary service in the Canadian forces from 3 September 1939 to 1 March 1947. The seven marching personnel are based on real people taken from National Defence photographs, representing the land, sea and air forces plus a nurse.
650,000 have been awarded including 525,500 with the overseas bar.

The ribbon has narrow stripes of green and red flanking a broad central stripe of dark blue.