The province has appointed former federal justice Felix Cacchione as director of the province’s Serious Incident Response Team(SiRT).
Mr. Cacchione spent 32 years on the judicial bench and recently retired from the Nova Scotia Supreme Court.
“Mr. Cacchione is highly respected and brings over 40 years of knowledge, experience and skill to the position,” said Attorney General and Justice Minister Mark Furey. “Nova Scotians are fortunate to have his calibre of expertise in the role. Under Mr. Cacchione’s direction, SiRT will continue to perform investigations to the highest quality.”
He replaces interim director John Scott, who was appointed to replace SiRT’s first director, Ron MacDonald. Mr. MacDonald held the position since SiRT became operational in 2012.
“I would also like to thank Mr. Scott for his leadership with SiRT over the past five months,” said Mr. Furey. “Nova Scotians continued to be well served by the important work of SiRT under his direction.”
Mr. Cacchione’s appointment comes into effect Monday, March 12.
He studied law at Dalhousie University and has been a member of the Nova Scotia Barristers’ Society since 1975. He practised criminal law throughout his career and was appointed a Nova Scotia county court judge in 1986 and a Supreme Court judge in 1993 when the courts merged.
He taught criminal law at Dalhousie Law School and St. Mary’s University as well as provided criminal jury trial seminars and criminal law trial simulations at the National Judicial Institute. He also volunteered his time to teach aspiring and practicing lawyers and judges.
“I am grateful for this opportunity to continue to serve the people of Nova Scotia,” said Mr. Cacchione. “I look forward to working with the SiRT team and I am hopeful that my training and experience will be an asset to SIRT. This is important work and I look forward to this new challenge.”
SiRT investigates all matters that involve death, serious injury, sexual assault and domestic violence, or other matters of significant public interest that may have arisen from the actions of any police agency across the province.
He will oversee a team of four investigators, including two civilians with prior policing experience and two police officers.
Source: Release