Omar Khadr's war-crimes trial will be delayed for at least 30 days, following an unexpected medical situation involving his U.S. lawyer.
Lt. Col. Jon Jackson collapsed at the end of Thursday's proceedings and was promptly taken to a military hospital.
While the precise cause of his collapse has not been disclosed, Jackson recently underwent gallbladder surgery.
CTV's Daniele Hamamdjian said Jackson's surgery took place in June and he returned to work only two weeks later.
Since his collapse in court on Thursday, Hamamdjian said reporters have learned that Jackson is in pain and reportedly has been given morphine in hospital.
"Lt. Col. Jackson is in hospital now and he is expected to be flown back to the United States, presumably in the next few days," she told CTV News Channel by telephone from Guantanamo Bay on Friday.
Jackson was cross-examining a witness at the time of his collapse, which Globe and Mail reporter Anna Mehler Paperny said was a confusing moment in the courtroom.
"At one point, Lt. Col. Jackson started to cough, he asked for a five-minute recess and then he went to grab a glass of water and he sort of fell on the floor," Paperny told CTV's Canada AM during an interview on Friday morning.
"It was a very kind of tumultuous point in court proceedings, obviously. No one was quite sure what had gone wrong, what had happened."
Dennis Edney, the Canadian lawyer who has long represented Khadr, told reporters that his client was upset by what had happened to his American counsel.
For now, the 23-year-old Khadr will have to wait at least another month to get on with the trial that has taken years to get underway.
A military defence commission spokesperson said Khadr's trial will continue with the same judge and jury.
Spokesperson Brian Broyles said that the jury "will be given an instruction not to look at the media, or discuss the case with anybody."
Broyles said it is unlikely that the delay will result in a mistrial.
"We'll be picking up here right where we left off," he said.
Hamamdjian said the case will wait for Jackson to recover.
"He remains Omar Khadr's attorney and the trial will not go on without him," she said.
With jurors and witnesses having to make special efforts to travel to Guantanamo Bay, Paperny said there is some concern that it would be difficult to have them make a return trip at a later date.
"If it is postponed for longer than a few days, it may have to be pushed back longer and obviously that would inconvenience pretty much all the parties involved," said Paperny.
With files from The Canadian Press
