4 soldiers in Afghanistan misused weapons

A military investigation following the shooting death of a Canadian soldier has found that four comrades who served in Afghanistan in 2007 mishandled weapons, but three were only ordered to correct their behaviour.

The Canadian Forces said Wednesday that the "remedial measures" were given to the three soldiers in the last couple of years. No remedial measures were pursued for the fourth soldier.

Remedial measures can include training and maybe counselling. If a problem persists, members could lose their rank or be kicked out of the military.

"Although their conduct at the time was inappropriate, their performance since then indicates that the incidents which occurred during the training prior to deploying to Afghanistan were isolated and not indicative of their usual behaviour," Col. James Camsell, commander of 36 Canadian Brigade Group, said in a statement.

The allegations of improper handling of weapons by members of 36 CBG came up during the first court martial of Matthew Wilcox.

Wilcox shot and killed his friend and fellow soldier from Nova Scotia, Cpl. Kevin Megeney, in a tent at Kandahar Airfield in 2007. He claimed he acted in self-defence to what he thought was a threat.

Defence lawyers at the 2009 court martial hearing presented two video clips — one showed a soldier holding a gun to another soldier's head and laughing, and the other showed a soldier assembling a handgun and pointing it at the person filming the video.

Following the first court martial in 2009, the military launched an administrative investigation that found four of the soldiers didn't follow Canadian Forces standards for handling weapons.

Because the four soldiers weren't charged, the military says it can't give any details about their specific cases for privacy reasons.

Wilcox was sentenced to four years in prison last month after a second court martial.