MANDEL: Kenneth Law pleads guilty to aiding the suicide of 14 Ontarians

"I plead guilty," the 60-year-old calmly replied to each of the 14 counts as he stood before Superior Court Justice Michelle Fuerst.

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Published May 29, 2026  •  Last updated 4 hours ago  •  2 minute read

A photo of Kenneth Law, an Ontario resident arrested in 2023 in an investigation into several deaths caused by poison. Photo by Handout /Peel Regional Police

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It took eight long minutes for the clerk to read the charges of the 14 Ontarians Kenneth Law helped to take their lives.

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In a crowded Newmarket courtroom, as the families of his many victims wept, the former Royal York cook pleaded guilty to aiding their suicides, two of them just 16 years old.

Court heard some of them regretted what they’d done and cried for help – but it was too late.

“I plead guilty,” the 60-year-old calmly replied to each of the 14 counts as he stood before Superior Court Justice Michelle Fuerst.

Crown attorney Peter Westgate explained to the court that the 14 charges of first-degree murder that he faced will be withdrawn because there is no longer a “reasonable prospect of conviction” after the Supreme Court failed to interfere with a now-binding Ontario Court of Appeal decision that found it’s not murder if the victim performs the final act.

Prosecutors told the court it would take three hours to read the lengthy agreed statement of facts.

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Law admits products contributed to suicides

Law operated four websites that sold “exit masks” and 50 gm packages of 99.9% pure sodium nitrate, a chemical food preservative used in deli meats that is fatal at those doses. He charged about $80 US for each package and shipped using Canada Post from Mississauga. Court heard he mailed out more than 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 who was discovered slumped 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, prosecutors told the court.  But according to his Shopify and PayPal deposits from his four online companies, Law took in just over $300,000 in from his suicide sales.

Crown attorney Cindy Nadler detailed the tragic cases of each of the 14 Ontarians who took their lives.

The first, a 21-year-old, was overheard vomiting by his parents and when they went to check, he asked his mother to call 911. He died in his father’s arms. Another victim called 911 himself, “Please, I’m going to die soon,” he told the operator and began to cry.

It was too late for him as well.

A 16-year-old, his name covered by a publication ban, left a suicide note saying he couldn’t cope with the transition to life here from his native Turkey.

The hearing continues.

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