Kenneth Law appears in court in Brampton, Ont., on May 3, 2023 in an artist's sketch.Alexandra Newbould/The Canadian Press
A years-long effort to put Kenneth Law on trial for the alleged murders of 14 people who died by suicide has been derailed, but legal experts say prosecutors in Ontario are still poised to secure a strict sentence in the closely watched case.
Mr. Law, 60, was accused of selling sodium nitrite online to people who aimed to die by suicide. The product has many legal uses but ingesting it in high concentrations is fatal.
In late 2023, police charged him with 14 murders, seven months after his initial arrest. But late last week, The Globe and Mail reported prosecutors had agreed to settle the case. Mr. Law will plead guilty to lesser charges of aiding suicide.
The plea deal is largely a result of court rulings in a separate case. In that case, the Ontario Court of Appeal drew a distinct line between murder and aiding suicide, a legal hurdle for prosecutors seeking to convict Mr. Law of murder. That decision was later reinforced by a minority judgment from the Supreme Court of Canada.
Families devastated after collapse of murder charges against Kenneth Law
Conviction on the murder charges would have meant a life sentence with no chance of parole for 25 years. Each charge of aiding suicide carries a maximum of 14 years in prison. Consecutive maximum sentences are unlikely, but a total sentence of more than 14 years is possible.
The plan to punish Mr. Law on lesser crimes has angered alleged victims’ families. But what appears to be a loss for prosecutors is being viewed by some legal experts as a win: Mr. Law will be convicted and a judge can levy a punitive sentence that will send a strong message – one that could discourage similar crimes.
“The Crown did the best that they could in light of what was really shifting sands underneath them,” said Lisa Jean Helps, a Vancouver criminal-defence lawyer who has also worked as a Crown prosecutor.
The 14 deaths are a fraction of the wrongdoing authorities believe happened. They have said Mr. Law met people online in forums where users discussed suicide, and that he mailed sodium nitrite to customers of his business across Canada and in more than three dozen countries.
A photo of Kenneth Law is shown during a York Regional Police news conference in Mississauga, Aug. 29, 2023.Arlyn McAdorey/The Canadian Press
Given the severity and breadth of Mr. Law’s alleged actions, Ms. Helps said prosecutors can seek a long sentence even without the prospect of a life sentence. There could be sentences of at least seven years on each of the 14 charges of aiding suicide and, subtracting time served, a total sentence of 15 to 20 years in prison.
“Canada’s justice system is in the spotlight,” she said of the international scope of the case. “The Crown should be applauded.”
In May, 2023, police in Mississauga first arrested and charged Mr. Law with two counts of aiding suicide. He has been jailed since then. Shortly before, he spoke with The Globe. “I’m selling a legal product,” Mr. Law said in an interview. “And what the person does with it? I have no control.”
Several months later, the case against Mr. Law expanded to 14 counts of aiding suicide. By December that year, police and prosecutors added 14 charges of second-degree murder. Soon after, it was 14 charges of first-degree murder and 14 charges of aiding suicide.
First-degree murder is a planned and deliberate killing. Aiding suicide is when a person counsels, encourages or helps another person to die by suicide. (The Criminal Code exempts medical assistance in dying conducted by health professionals.)
Kenneth Law, accused of selling deadly substances online, says rights violated in prison
The challenging case for the Crown started to teeter in mid-2024, six months after the first-degree murder charges. The Ontario Court of Appeal, in a case of attempted murder called B.F., drew a clear line between murder and aiding suicide. The province’s top court said it’s not murder if the person who aids suicide does not coerce or manipulate the person who died – overbearing the victim’s free will, in the parlance of the law.
At that point, prosecutors in the case against Mr. Law urged the Supreme Court to hear an appeal of the B.F. ruling to settle the demarcation of the line between murder and aiding suicide. They said the Ontario appeal court, wrongly in their view, limited potential liability of people who aid suicide.
Canada’s top court took the B.F. case, but in a 6-3 ruling last December, it focused on specific details and sidestepped broad questions. Justice Michelle O’Bonsawin, writing for the majority, declined to conclusively resolve what she called the “abstract legal issue” of where aiding suicide morphs into murder.
But the minority judgment, which included Chief Justice Richard Wagner, did offer its view.
If a person dies by suicide “autonomously and of their own free will,” the person who may have aided suicide faces less moral blame for the outcome and isn’t guilty of culpable homicide. But if a person who aids suicide had overpowered the deceased’s “autonomous choice whether to commit suicide,” then it could be culpable homicide.
How media questions spurred criminal investigation into Kenneth Law
The murder case against Mr. Law at that point became more difficult to prove. Prosecutors no longer had a reasonable prospect of conviction on such charges.
Kent Roach, a law professor at the University of Toronto, said prosecutors may have had a solid case before the court rulings.
“This might not be intuitive, but you can be guilty of murder even if you don’t pull the trigger,” he said.
Sentencing on the charges of aiding suicide will likely focus on deterrence of such crimes and what’s known as denunciation, the public condemnation of Mr. Law’s actions. It could result in a significant punishment.
“I understand that the public and the victims’ families would have preferred a murder conviction but there are convictions,” Prof. Roach said.
Thomas Slade, a lawyer involved in the B.F. case, said the federal Criminal Code may need further clarification given the legal debate over when aiding suicide becomes homicide.
“This is a problem Parliament has to fix down the road,” he said.
Adam Weisberg, president of the Criminal Lawyers’ Association in Toronto, said prosecutors’ clear goal was a life sentence for Mr. Law but that was never realistic.
“I never understood nor saw a clear route to a murder conviction without a drastic change in the law,” Mr. Weisberg said.
But like other experts, he predicted that a judge will likely choose a strict sentence. “I would expect even on a guilty plea that they will attract a double-digit penitentiary sentence.”