[JURIST] A group of media organizations has asked a Canadian judge to consider vacating a media blackout in the cases of 17 men arrested in Ontario [JURIST report] earlier this month and charged with a terrorist plot. Under Canada's Criminal Code, a judge may order a publication ban [Department of Justice backgrounder] on details from court hearings in order to protect a suspect's right to a fair trial; Justice of the Peace Keith Currie has banned all media from reporting on the details [Bloomberg report; JURIST report] of court proceedings involving the 17 terror suspects in response to a request from prosecutors. The Associated Press, the New York Times, the Toronto Star and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation met with Regional Senior Judge Bruce Durno Monday to try to set up a hearing to challenge the media ban. Meanwhile, nine of the suspects had bail hearings Monday, with two of the teenage suspects appeared for bail hearings [CBC report] on Tuesday.

The 17 suspects – 12 adults and two teenagers – are suspected of being members of a terrorist cell that planned to attack targets in southern Ontario and Toronto, including the CN Tower and the Peace Tower on Parliament Hill in Ottawa. Also suspected of attending a terror training camp near Toronto, the 17 allegedly gathered three tons of common makeshift bomb ingredient ammonium nitrate fertilizer, three times the amount used in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing that killed 168 people. The suspects have been charged under the terrorism provisions of Section 83 [text] of the Canadian Criminal Code. AP has more.

ALSO ON JURIST  Op-ed: Canadian Anti-Terror Law on Trial: The Toronto Terrorism Arrests