Kenneth Law

Kenneth M. Law (born 1965) is a Canadian man who sold a lethal chemical to suicidal people from 2020 until his arrest in May 2023. Law sold packages linked to 14 deaths in Ontario, 79 deaths in the UK, and more elsewhere. His products reached 40 countries and, according to a CBC News investigation, killed at least 147 worldwide. He also actively participated in forums promoting suicide and encouraged others to kill themselves with his product.

He was initially charged with two counts of assisting suicide, with charges expanded and upgraded to 14 counts of first-degree murder relating to deaths in Ontario. These charges were ultimately downgraded and Law pled guilty to 14 counts of assisting suicide in May 2026. He is scheduled to be sentenced in September 2026, with deaths in the UK being taken into account.

Sodium nitrite, the substance that Law sold, is not restricted in Canada and is also a food additive. Law also sold items such as masks or hoods that were used in suicides.

Early life and career Kenneth M. Law was born in 1965. He is of East Asian descent. He has an industrial engineering degree from the University of Toronto, a master's degree in management science from the University of Waterloo, and a Master of Business Administration from York University. He claimed in a 2005 blog post to have worked in aerospace, finance and marketing. he found employment as a cook at the Fairmont Royal York Hotel, where he was filmed partaking in a labour union turf dispute. Toronto Life reported that Law performed poorly, frequently argued with his coworkers and had few friends there. He once complained of age discrimination. The hotel's kitchen shut down early on in the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada, filed for bankruptcy, owing over C$134,000.

Online businesses

Sodium nitrite is a chemical that can be toxic in sufficient quantities and is also a food additive. According to Toronto Life, it was relatively unknown outside of the restaurant and healthcare industries before 2018, when Exit International founder Philip Nitschke promoted it as a method to commit suicide; Law sourced his supply from China and stored it in his house.

According to a statement of fact that Law accepted in 2026, Law operated four companies that sold sodium nitrite, in addition to equipment such as masks or hoods that can be used for suicide, Law disguised his sites as food-prep shops; he offered items such as hot sauce In the period between January 1, 2020, and May 23, 2023, Law earned about C$297,000 from his online businesses. Law promoted his products on Sanctioned Suicide and ran a pro-suicide blog under the account name Greenberg. Google took down the Greenberg blog a day after The Times published the exposé on Law. Parfett's father tipped off James Beal, a reporter with The Times. Beal went undercover as a potential customer to record Law, and captured him confessing to selling a product that killed "many, many, many people". That month, 11 Ontario police agencies united to create a task force investigating Law's activities. Police agencies in the U.S., U.K., Italy, Australia, and New Zealand also began investigating him, but he was only prosecuted in Ontario. According to a CBC News tally, Law's products are linked to 147 suicides worldwide. The task force investigating Law estimated that he sent 1,209 packages to 41 countries through his companies, but could not say how many contained sodium nitrite.

Legal proceedings

Criminal case Law's legal case unfolded in the Superior Court of Justice in Newmarket. unusually, Law was not accused of selling an illegal or restricted substance.

He was initially charged with two counts of counselling or aiding suicide in relation to two Peel Region deaths. In August 2023, Law was charged with 12 more counts of counselling or aiding suicide for other Ontario deaths. He was additionally charged with 14 counts of second-degree murder in December, which were upgraded to first-degree murder the following month. In March 2024, Law maintained his innocence, with his lawyer stating that Law only sold an "otherwise legal product on the open market". In April 2025, Law lodged a complaint with the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario alleging mistreatment and neglect in prison; he subsequently abandoned the complaint. In September 2024, the Crown requested that the Supreme Court of Canada give an opinion on whether assisting suicide can be charged as murder after the Ontario Court of Appeals ruled, in a case unrelated to that of Law, that merely providing the means to commit suicide does not constitute murder. This appeal caused Law's trial to be delayed to January 2026, then spring 2026. The Supreme Court did not unambiguously resolve this matter by the time of Law's conviction in May 2026, leaving the Ontario Court of Appeals ruling standing. This made it impossible to move forward with a murder prosecution.

On May 29, 2026, Law pleaded guilty to assisting the suicides of 14 Ontarians, Law also admitted responsibility for 79 suicides in the UK. He is expected to be sentenced in September 2026, with the British deaths taken into account. As of May 2026, he has continuously been in custody since his initial arrest.

Social impact After Law's May 2023 arrest, Google Trends registered a spike in interest in sodium nitrite and sodium nitrate, presumably confused for the former, in Canada. A smaller spike in searches for these two terms occurred in August, when Law was additionally charged. Channel 4 commissioned a two-part documentary about Law, Poisoned: Killer in the Post, which aired in July 2025. Law has been described as a serial killer, or something similar to one, by the press. A criminologist likened him to cult leaders and "angel of death" murderers. A relative of one of Law's British victims described Law as "one of the most prolific mass killers in British modern history".

The families of Law's victims in the UK have called for a public inquiry. They formally petitioned for one in October 2025, but were rejected in March 2026.