A Superior Court ruling means the public could soon know more about what police allege the men accused in the Via Rail terror plot were planning before they were arrested.

That information, contained in documents used to obtain search warrants for the properties of Chiheb Esseghaier and Raed Jaser, has been kept secret under a sealing order since they were arrested April 22 in Toronto and Montreal. The Star and other media outlets have been fighting in court to make the documents public.

A decision delivered by senior regional Justice Bruce Durno last week — which could not be published until now — means some of that information could soon be released after media lawyers argued the public has a right to know what evidence police had against the two men. Some details will remain secret under a publication ban.

Durno’s decision also contradicts the interpretation of the same law used by a lower court judge to prevent similar disclosure of search warrant information in Project Traveller, a Toronto guns and gangs sweep that may have links to Mayor Rob Ford.

The terror plot arrests came after an RCMP investigation dubbed Project Smooth, done in collaboration with CSIS, the FBI, police forces in Toronto and Montreal and other agencies. The two men stand accused of plotting a terrorist attack on a New York-to-Toronto passenger train, and they face numerous terrorism-related charges including conspiring to murder for the benefit of a terrorist group.

Project Traveller targeted an alleged gang linked to the Dixon Rd. community in Toronto, and a guns and drugs smuggling ring that stretched as far as Windsor and Edmonton.

In court on that case, media lawyers argued the public has a right to scrutinize the information police used to obtain dozens of warrants and see what links if any there are to the mayor after the Star published a report about a video showing Ford smoking what appears to be crack cocaine.

Arguments in that case centred on whether the Criminal Code allowed for information gained through a wiretap to be disclosed if it had been previously detailed by police to obtain search warrants.

That hinged on whether a judge believed that process to obtain a search warrant was a “criminal proceeding” or not.

During that court fight, Crown Attorney Jeffrey Levy argued it was not a criminal proceeding and that disclosing the wiretap information would therefore be a criminal offence.

Ontario Court Justice Philip Downes agreed the wiretap information could not be released. The document that was made public last week remained heavily censored with nearly 100 of 119 pages almost entirely blacked out.

But Durno, who had to consider the interpretation of the same law, ruled that such information could be disclosed if it was previously used to obtain search warrants.

“The contents are included in sworn affidavits of police officers. They were given in a criminal proceeding and must be under oath,” Durno wrote. “I am also persuaded that the further disclosure would not breach s. 193 for the same reasons because the section permits the private communications to be disclosed in search warrant applications that are presumptively open to the public through this route.”

The position of the federal Crown, Sarah Shaikh, was that some portions of the documents could be released to the public, but others should remain sealed.

Jaser’s lawyer, John Norris, argued against the immediate unsealing of the documents, saying their release could compromise his client’s right to a fair trial.

“Durno (is) one of the most experienced judges there is and clearly had no difficulty finding that it was a criminal proceeding,” said the Star’s lawyer, Ryder Gilliland, who made arguments in the Project Traveller case. “It’s 100 per cent what we argued.”

Media lawyers are now preparing to file for a judicial review of Downes’ decision, which could see a Superior Court judge side with Durno’s interpretation.

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In the Project Traveller case the media have also sought access to some 40 other search warrants, half of which the Crown says are censored under that same wiretap exclusion.

The timeline for releasing search warrant information in the terror plot case will be discussed between Durno and lawyers soon. Some parts will remain sealed to protect innocent parties or the ongoing trial.