An Ontario court judge says a resolution to the case against Kenneth Law will take place at a hearing next month on charges he sold a toxic substance online to vulnerable people looking for a way to kill themselves.
Ontario Superior Court Justice Michelle Fuerst said late Monday the “resolution hearing” will be held on May 29, with Mr. Law in attendance.
The hearing is expected to formalize a plea agreement announced late last week by lawyers in Mr. Law’s case that will see the 60-year-old former chef plead guilty to aiding suicide as prosecutors drop murder charges against him.
“That date is an appearance date, in person, for all counsel along with Mr. Law and myself,” Justice Fuerst said.
Families devastated after collapse of murder charges against Kenneth Law
Mr. Law, who has been jailed since his arrest in May, 2023, at his home in Mississauga, did not attend Monday’s virtual hearing. A pretrial discussion on May 13 is scheduled for lawyers prior to Mr. Law’s May 29 appearance.
At the time of Mr. Law’s arrest, police alleged he shipped 1,200 packages of the poison to people in 41 countries from his online businesses, which also sold asphyxiation equipment.
Authorities have alleged Mr. Law met his clients through online suicide forums and that his parcels contributed to scores of deaths worldwide. British authorities have alleged that Mr. Law’s packages killed more than 112 people, particularly teenagers and young adults, in that country.
Canadian authorities believe Mr. Law shipped 160 packages within this country.
The 14 alleged Canadian victims were aged between 16 and 36 when they died of suicide between 2021 and 2023. Two were minors.
Mr. Law has not faced charges anywhere else.
Documents filed in court in Mr. Law’s case show Canadian police formed an investigative coalition in April, 2023, the same month that a British reporter from The Times called Canadian authorities to ask about Mr. Law and to indicate the imminent publication of a podcast and investigative article.
Detectives across Ontario then started sharing notes about past suicide cases and obtained search warrants against Mr. Law.
When he was arrested in 2023, he initially faced only charges of aiding suicide in the 14 Ontario deaths. As police and prosecutors amassed evidence, they added the 14 first-degree murder charges.
The new plea deal protects Mr. Law from the mandatory life sentence that results from a first-degree murder conviction. Some legal experts say prosecutors could still secure a strict sentence in the range of 15 to 20 years on the aiding-suicide charges.
Despite dropping of murder charges, Kenneth Law likely to face strict sentence, legal experts say
The plea deal was arranged after a 2024 Ontario Court of Appeal ruling in an unrelated case drew a distinct legal line between murder and aiding suicide.
The binding ruling held that a single death cannot lead to the simultaneous charging of the two offences. For murder to be proven in such instances, the court ruled, prosecutors must convince a court that an accused person provoked suicide by overcoming another person’s free will.
Ontario prosecutors, citing the impending case against Mr. Law, appealed that ruling, saying it was a legal bar that is almost impossible to clear.
Last December, the Supreme Court of Canada declined to reconsider that aspect of the Court of Appeal ruling. Prosecutors last week told families of the alleged victims that the state of the law in Ontario prompted them to withdraw the murder charges.
The collapse of the murder case against Mr. Law has devastated the families of his alleged victims, with some now calling for Canadian public inquiries and for him to face extradition to potential criminal trials abroad.