Canadian man expected to plead guilty to selling lethal substances to
people who killed themselves
[May 29, 2026]
By ROB GILLIES
TORONTO (AP) — A Canadian man accused of selling lethal substances
online to people who used them to end their own lives is expected to
plead guilty Friday to 14 counts of counseling or aiding suicide, his
lawyer said.
Kenneth Law is scheduled to appear in a Newmarket, Ontario, court to
enter the plea and sentencing is expected to take place later. Canadian
prosecutors will withdraw 14 murder charges in exchange for Law's plea,
his lawyer Matthew Gourlay said.
Police in Canada and around the world have been investigating more than
100 suicides linked to Law. The charges against him in the Canadian
court are related to 14 people across Ontario who were between the ages
of 16 and 36.
Canadian police said Law, from the Toronto area, used a series of
websites to market and sell sodium nitrite, a substance commonly used to
cure meats that can be deadly if ingested.
Law is suspected of sending at least 1,200 packages to more than 40
countries, with about 160 of those allegedly sent to addresses in
Canada, police said. He has been in custody since his arrest at his
Mississauga, Ontario, home in May 2023.
Prosecutors in the U.K. have decided not to charge Law despite
investigating him on over 112 deaths.
The Crown Prosecution Service and the National Crime Agency said they
had decided that Law “should be sentenced for the full extent of his
offending within a single sentencing process in Canada.”
In a letter to bereaved families, the organizations said it had been a
“difficult decision.”
“No outcome in any court can remove the pain victims and their families
have suffered,” they said.
Families of some of those who died called for a public inquiry.
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York Regional Police Inspector Simon James speaks during a news
conference in Mississauga, Ont., Aug. 29, 2023, with the image of
Kenneth Law, a Canadian man accused of selling lethal substances on
the internet to people at risk of self harm, displayed on screen. (Arlyn
McAdorey/The Canadian Press via AP, File)
 “If our own country will not put
anyone on trial for these deaths, the very least it can do is hold a
proper inquiry into how they were allowed to happen,” said Adele
Zeynep Walton, whose 21-year-old sister Aimee Walton died in 2022.
Authorities in the United States, Italy, Australia and New Zealand
also have conducted investigations.
Those found guilty of aiding suicide in Canada can face up to 14
years in prison, while first-degree murder carries an automatic
sentence of life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years.
A New Zealand coroner found that four people who died by suicide
there had ordered items online from a business associated with Law,
but noted that Law’s activities are outside the jurisdiction of New
Zealand courts.
It is against Canadian law to recommend suicide, although assisted
suicide has been legal since 2016 for people 18 and older. Any adult
with a serious illness, disease or disability may seek help in
dying, but they must ask for assistance from a physician.
___
Associated Press writer Jill Lawless in London contributed to this
report.
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