In a crowded Newmarket courtroom, as the families of his many victims wept, Kenneth Law pleaded guilty to aiding the suicides of 14 Ontarians, two of them just 16 years old. The 60-year-old former Royal York cook calmly replied to each count: 'I plead guilty.'
It took eight long minutes for the clerk to read the charges. Crown attorney Peter Westgate explained that 14 counts of first-degree murder will be withdrawn because there is no longer a 'reasonable prospect of conviction' after the Supreme Court failed to interfere with an Ontario Court of Appeal decision that found it is not murder if the victim performs the final act.
Law operated four websites selling 'exit masks' and 50-gram packages of 99.9% pure sodium nitrate, a chemical food preservative fatal at those doses. He charged about $80 US per package and shipped via Canada Post from Mississauga. Court heard he mailed over 1,200 packages to 41 countries, including 330 to the UK and 431 to the US.
Law admitted his products contributed to the suicides of 79 people in the UK, including a young mother found dead over her daughter's dollhouse after her four-year-old couldn't find her. Between 2020 and May 2023, a forensic audit showed Law made $96,261 in employment income, but his Shopify and PayPal deposits from four online companies totaled just over $300,000 from his suicide sales.
Crown attorney Cindy Nadler detailed the tragic cases of each of the 14 Ontarians. The first, a 21-year-old, was overheard vomiting by his parents and died in his father's arms after asking his mother to call 911. Another victim called 911 himself, crying, 'Please, I'm going to die soon,' but it was too late. A 16-year-old, whose name is protected by a publication ban, left a suicide note saying he couldn't cope with the transition to life in Canada from his native Turkey.
The hearing continues.
