Ontario Man Will Plead Guilty to Aiding Suicide, Murder Charges to be Dropped

Kenneth Law of Mississauga, Ont., will plead guilty to charges of counselling or assisting suicide, while murder charges against him are to be dropped, according to his lawyer.

Law is accused of running websites between 2020 and May 2023 to sell sodium nitrate and other substances used for self-harm. Police allege that Law sold the items to people in more than 40 countries through at least five online companies.

On May 2, 2023, Law, 57 at the time, was arrested and charged with two counts of counselling or aiding suicide after two deaths in the Regional Municipality of Peel in Ontario. The arrest followed an operation involving investigators from Canada, Australia, Britain, the United States, Italy, and New Zealand.

On Aug. 29, 2023, police announced an additional 12 counts of counselling or aiding suicide, and on Dec. 12 of the same year added 14 counts of second-degree murder—totalling 28 counts related to 14 victims.

Defence attorney Matthew Gourlay said at the time that Law would be pleading not guilty to all charges.

Law was scheduled to appear in the Ontario Superior Court in Newmarket for a virtual hearing on April 20, but that hearing may not proceed in light of Law changing his plea to guilty.

The hearing was rescheduled numerous times as the Crown and defence awaited a decision from the Supreme Court of Canada on when murder charges can be laid against people who aid in suicides.

The distinction matters because a second-degree murder conviction in Canada carries a mandatory life sentence, while a conviction related to aiding suicide carries a sentence of up to 14 years.

In a ruling on a separate case in December last year, the Supreme Court of Canada clarified that courts are not required to leave aiding suicide to a jury alongside attempted murder unless there is an “air of reality” to that theory based on the evidence. The court reaffirmed that aiding suicide is a distinct offence under the Criminal Code and that murder charges require proof of intent to kill, a distinction that was closely watched in proceedings involving Kenneth Law.

“I decline to conclusively resolve this abstract legal issue in this appeal,” Supreme Court Justice Michelle O’Bonsawin wrote in that case.

Law, an engineer who worked as a hotel cook, has been in custody at his Mississauga home since his arrest in 2023.