Attorney General backs Crown lawyers at delayed murder-suicide inquest

Wally Oppal defended the decision of the criminal justice branch of his ministry to go to court to argue that two prosecutors shouldn't have to testify at a coroner's inquest into a multiple murder-suicide in Victoria.

But the NDP suggested Thursday the move will put the inquest on hold for a long time.

The inquest has heard the Crown chose not to oppose Peter Lee's release on bail, even though his terrified wife had told police five weeks before her September 2007 death that her husband had threatened to kill her family.

"If this issue were to go to the Supreme Court of Canada, it could take years," said critic Mike Farnworth.

Oppal said it is "regrettable" that the inquest will be delayed and said he hopes the issue is resolved quickly.

But he backed up the criminal justice branch's view that forcing Crown prosecutors to testify could send chills through the justice system.

"Its a difficult principle to explain, I recognize that," said Oppal, a former appeal court judge.

"But the fact is this is a principle of law. It's an important principle of law, recognized by the Supreme Court of Canada, by the British Courts and by everyone else. It is not fully understood by everybody, but that's the law."

Coroner Jeff Dolan asked the two prosecutors involved in the Lee case to testify at the inquest after jurors requested it.

But the lawyer for the branch argued the lawyers shouldn't have to.

The inquest is on indefinite hold while the question is hashed out in a court.

A B.C. judge was already scheduled to hear the debate later this month after the same issue came up in a Vancouver inquiry into the freezing death of an aboriginal man.

The Lee inquest has seen a video-taped interview between police and Lee's wife Sunny Park, in which Park told investigators she was terrified of her husband, who had threatened to kill her and her family if she continued with plans to divorce him.

She said Lee deliberately tried to hurt her by ramming the family car into a hydro pole, breaking her arm.

Lee was charged with driving offences and given strict bail conditions to stay away from Park had her family.

Despite several violations that were considered minor, Lee's bail was never revoked and he fatally stabbed his six-year-old son, Park and Park's parents before killing himself.