The Canadian Forces has severed its military ties with Russell Williams, the former base commander who is serving a life sentence for the murder and rape of women in Ontario.

The military announced Friday that it had retrieved Williams' commission scroll confirming he was a serving officer as well as the two medals he earned while serving in the Canadian Forces. The scroll will be shredded while the medals will be cut into small pieces and then discarded.

Williams had two medals: the Canadian Forces Decoration Medal, given for good service, and the South West Asia Service Medal, for having served at least 30 days in Afghanistan.

These were the final steps needed to formally release him from the military.

"We're just satisfied that all the administrative steps were taken and we really wanted the Canadian public to know this so that there's a marker and we can move forward from this point on," Canadian Forces spokesman Cmdr. Hubert Genest told The Canadian Press.

Genest said it was a symbolic step. "I see it like a sentence," he said.

"When you put the final period at the end of the sentence the period is not much, but it means a lot. So that's what we were doing today."

Previously, the military had retrieved and burned the uniforms that Williams had been assigned and Gov. Gen. David Johnston officially revoked the former colonel's military commission in October.

When police began to investigate the disappearance of an Eastern Ontario woman in late January, their attention quickly turned to Williams.

When he was called in for questioning, Williams was wearing a pair of boots that tied him to the home where the missing woman lived.

Within a few hours, Williams admitted that he had killed two women in Eastern Ontario.

Eight months later, Williams entered guilty pleas in an Ontario court admitting to the murders of Jessica Lloyd and Cpl. Marie-France Comeau, the two women he stalked, raped and killed. And he admitted sexually assaulting two other women in their homes.

He also pleaded guilty to a bizarre series of break-ins in which Williams stole women's underwear and took pictures of himself wearing it. In court, pictures were shown of the former military man wearing underwear that belonged to adult women, teenagers and even some young girls.

Williams is currently serving a life sentence in a Kingston, Ont., prison.