RECAP | Sexual assault trial for ex-world junior hockey players paused as judge mulls way forward

Hi, readers. We’re going to wrap up our live coverage of today’s events.

I appreciate it must be frustrating that there was so little we could report on today from court. We’re constrained by rules under Canadian law that are meant to safeguard the judicial process.

Scroll down if you want to get caught up on what few details we could share.

Thanks for sticking with us. And be sure to check back on CBCnews.ca — when there are trial developments we can report, you’ll be able to find them there.

We’ve just been told that court will now resume at 3:30 p.m. ET, not 2:30 p.m. as we were originally told.

For anyone wondering, this is completely normal. One of the things with trials is that there can be a lot of downtime for the jurors, while lawyers and the judge discuss legal matters outside of their presence. That also means the media can’t report what is said.

Although this case has lots of publicity because of the high public profile of the five accused men, all of the publication bans and the inability to report what’s said outside of the presence of the jury are standard in Canadian law.

For example, the publication ban on the name of the complainant in this case, E.M., is mandatory under the Criminal Code. The same is the case for media not being able to report anything said outside the presence of the jury. If you want to know more about publication bans in Canada, check out this link.

Publication bans are in place to protect victims and ensure fair trials.

After a morning of procedural discussions that we can’t report on, court is now on a break until 2:30 p.m. ET.

One thing to know about court — there’s a morning and afternoon recess, each lasting 15 minutes, and a longer lunch, usually an hour and a half. It’s a rare treat for reporters who usually eat at their desks.

Generally, the reporters spend the breaks madly typing up stories, filing for television and radio newscasts, and fielding questions from editors.

Legal arguments are taking longer than expected this morning.

This is not unusual. In Canadian law, anything heard during a trial outside the presence of the jury cannot be reported — it's part of the Criminal Code, which states "no information regarding any portion of the trial at which the jury is not present shall be published in any document or broadcast or transmitted in any way before the jury retires to consider its verdict."

Family members are here again today, as are the media from Canada and other countries. Once again, the accused are all wearing dark suits except for Carter Hart, who is wearing an olive green suit. Each man is sitting at his own table with his legal team.

They each have the same tables each day, so it’s not a scramble to fight for the best table. Reporters, on the other hand, do jostle (cordially) for a place to sit, although at this point we’re all kind of taking the same spots every day.

I’m Katie Nicholson, senior reporter for CBC News, and I’m here at the courthouse this morning.

It’s going to be a hot day here in London for the camera crews poised outside the exits and entrances.

The accused players and their lawyers have all arrived for more proceedings this morning. Court still has to clear up a matter from yesterday between the judge and the lawyers before the jury is expected to return around noon. We are prohibited from reporting what transpired.

It’s often close quarters here. We all go through the same entrance and security process, and we are often standing next to one another on the main floor waiting to get into the courtroom and for elevators, sometimes literally bumping into one another.

Before yesterday’s matter arose on the lunch break, we were just kicking off with witness No. 1, a London Police Service detective, after the Crown’s opening statement laying out their case. That’s all on pause until this matter from yesterday is resolved.

Good morning. I’m a producer based in Toronto and I’ll be curating our live page today.

Our reporters are back at the Superior Court in London, Ont., for the sexual assault trial of five former world junior hockey players.

Updates from court may be a bit slower for the next little while as the judge deals with a procedural matter that we are not allowed to report on.

But we’ll bring you all the latest developments as soon as we’re able.

Stay tuned.