The issue of what should be considered legal armed resistance and what is an act of terrorism has come up at the trial of a youth charged with being part of bomb plot.

The teen was arrested in June 2006, along with 14 adults and three other youths in a Toronto anti-terrorism sweep. He has been charged with knowingly being a member of a terrorist group, but cannot be identified under the provisions of the Youth Criminal Justice Act.

The group was suspected of plotting to storm Parliament Hill and bomb Toronto-area targets.

The charges were filed under Canada's anti-terrorism legislation, which Parliament added to the Criminal Code in the aftermath of the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

Lawyer Faisal Mirza is challenging the law because he says it doesn't outline what is considered lawful participation in an armed conflict.

He says one defence against terrorism charges is that an accused is a lawful combatant involved in an armed conflict. Mirza argued in a Brampton courtroom that Canada's anti-terrorism legislation is unconstitutional because it doesn't define what a lawful combatant is.

"Who's a lawful combatant, who's an unlawful combatant? What's an enemy combatant? Are you lawful or unlawful combatant? The [Omar] Khadr situation is a good example of that," he told reporters outside the court.

Mirza was referring to Omar Khadr, a Toronto-born detainee at the U.S. prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. 
 
A U.S. military tribunal went through a lengthy process to determine his status.
 
Mirza said the lawful combatant defence is bound to come up at other points in the trials of the other males charged in the anti-terrorism sweep of 2006.

"Indeed, if they determine they have lawful status that goes to whether they can be prosecuted for a terrorist act," said Mirza. 

Crown prosecutor Croft Michaelson said Canadian law does not have to define who is a lawful combatant because there is a large body of international law and expertise on the topic.
 
The judge has reserved a decision on this latest challenge to the anti-terrorism law.