A schoolteacher from Langley, B.C., has been inducted as a member of the Legion d'Honneur. The award, which is equivalent to a British knighthood, is France's highest honour.

Mohamed Chelali was one of three people who stopped a man attempting to assassinate French President Jacques Chirac on Bastille Day last year.

Mohamed Chelali
Mohamed Chelali

Chelali is a humble man, but to Chirac he is a hero. Now he has been recognized for his bravery.

Chelali was in a crowd of thousands watching the Bastille Day parade on the Champs Elysees when he saw a man fire a gun at Chirac's passing car.

Along with three other men he tackled the man and wrestled the gun away from him.

It wasn't until later that Chelali realized the danger he was in.

"You know there were snipers all over the Champs Elysees and they saw a person like me with a gun, and sometimes when I think I said 'Whoa, I might be mistaken for the perpetrator,' not the one who's taken the gun from the guy."

Chelali was with his family on July 14 and his 15-year-old son Tarik remembers hearing a shot and his father pouncing on the gunman. Tarik says his father deserves all the recognition in the world.

"My dad being an Algerian, a North African, and having overcome a lot of racism here in France and all over the world, it's extremely symbolic about what happened, him saving a Frenchman and not the other way around."

French officials haven't told Chelali when he'll receive the Legion d'Honneur medal. But since the day he helped stop an assassin's bullet he has met face to face with both Chirac and with Prime Minister Jean Chrétien.

Chelali is currently in Beirut where he is teaching high school. He will likely receive the medal at the French embassy there.

He plans on returning to Canada sometime next year.