New sexual assault trial for 5 ex-junior hockey players set to begin in London, Ont.

Good morning. Kate Dubinski here. I’m based in London and I’m another of the reporters covering this trial. I’ll be doing live updates as quickly as possible.

It’s a beautiful spring day in London. The sun is shining and it’s T-shirt weather. Spring also means a lot of wildlife.

There are three large planters in front of the Superior Court (sometimes I use them to balance my laptop if I’m recording a radio piece and need to read a script). But one of the planters is now off limits because a duck is sitting on a nest.

The reporters have been giving the mama duck wide berth and letting her be.

We’ll see if we see some ducklings by the end of the trial.

A mother and father goose have also been spotted with their goslings in the courtroom vicinity.

We’re back in London, Ont., court

Good morning. I’m a writer and editor based in Kingston, Ont., and I’ll be curating your live page updates today.

We have multiple reporters at the Ontario Court of Justice in London, Ont., where the new sexual assault trial for five former world junior hockey players is set to begin this morning.

It comes after a mistrial was declared by Superior Court Justice Maria Carroccia, three days into the first trial. We can’t report anything that happened in the previous proceedings because of a publication ban.

Today, we’re expecting to hear the judge’s instructions to the jury that was chosen Friday as well as the Crown’s opening statement. The trial is set to go half a day because of the federal election.

Stay with us as we bring the latest developments throughout the day.