Kenneth Law
Canadian criminal (born 1965)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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 U.K., and more elsewhere. His products reached 40 countries and, according to a CBC News investigation, killed at least 147 worldwide.
Kenneth Law | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1965 (age 60–61) |
| Other name | Greenberg |
| Alma mater | University of Toronto University of Waterloo York University |
| Years active | 2020–2023 |
| Convictions | Aiding suicide (14 counts) |
| Details | |
| Victims | 14-147 |
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 U.K. 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[1] was born in 1965.[a] He is of East Asian descent.[4] 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.[5] He claimed in a 2005 blog post to have worked in aerospace, finance and marketing.[6] By 2009, he had become a managing director for an automotive company.[5]
In 2009, he was interviewed by Canadian Business. He was described as a former watch collector from Thornhill who invented a wheelchair device for his elderly mother. The device, called the escMode Wheel Accessory, makes stairs compatible with wheelchairs. He was looking into protecting the intellectual property and constructing a prototype model, estimating that it would cost C$100,000. He entered his design into the Great Canadian Innovation Competition and hoped that his invention would become ubiquitous worldwide.[5] Years later, in an interview with The Times, he further detailed that his mother suffered a stroke and was bed-ridden for seven years, relying on a feeding tube. He also added that his religious father did not believe in euthanasia. The Times could not independently verify his claims, and a family member contacted by The Times disavowed Law entirely.[7]
In 2016, wanting a "lifestyle change",[7] he found employment as a cook at the Fairmont Royal York Hotel, where he was filmed partaking in a labour union turf dispute.[8] Toronto Life reported that Law performed poorly, frequently argued with his coworkers and had few friends there. He once complained of age discrimination.[9] The hotel's kitchen shut down early on in the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada,[9] and the unemployed Law[10] filed for bankruptcy, owing over C$134,000.[6]
Online businesses
Sodium nitrite is a chemical that can be toxic in sufficient quantities and is also a food additive.[11] 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;[9] Nitschke claims to have directly introduced Law to the substance.[12] Law sourced his supply from China and stored it in his house.[13]
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,[14] with instructions for use.[15] A woman who claims to be one of Law's customers described one of Law's sites as being similar to Amazon, even having tracking numbers for products.[16] Law disguised his sites as food-prep shops; he offered items such as hot sauce[15] and included a fried chicken recipe on a site.[17] In the period between Jan. 1, 2020, and May 23, 2023, Law earned about C$297,000 from his online businesses.[18]
Posing as a doctor from New York,[19] Law promoted his products on Sanctioned Suicide[20] 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.[19]
Investigation and arrest
| Kenneth Law's arrest | |
|---|---|
| Exclusive photo of Law being arrested in Mississauga obtained by Global News | |
 Law's arrest |
After Tom Parfett, a British man, committed suicide in 2021 with sodium nitrite supplied by Kenneth Law,[21] Parfett's father tipped off The Times reporter James Beal. Beal went undercover as a potential customer to record Law, and captured him confessing to selling a product that killed "many, many, many people".[9] Beal published an article in April 2023 linking Law to seven deaths.[11] Shortly afterwards, Law gave an interview to The Globe and Mail arguing that he had "no control" over what his customers did with the sodium nitrite and was thus not criminally responsible. He also accused The Times of misrepresenting his words.[11]
Peel Regional Police had been probing a suspicious death involving sodium nitrite since March 31.[22] In April 2023, after Beal emailed the force about investigating the suicides, they urgently reviewed past cases of sodium nitrite poisonings. They began intercepting Law's packages by April 27, and arrested him at his Mississauga residence on May 2.[23] That month, 11 Ontario police agencies united to create a task force investigating Law's activities.[24] Police agencies in the U.S., U.K., Italy, Australia, and New Zealand also began investigating him,[25] but he was only prosecuted in Ontario.[26] According to a CBC News tally, Law's products are linked to 147 suicides worldwide.[27] The task force investigating Law estimated that he sent 1,209 packages to 41 countries through his companies,[28] but could not say how many contained sodium nitrite.[22]
Legal proceedings
Criminal case
Law's legal case unfolded in the Superior Court of Justice in Newmarket.[18] Legal experts describe the Law case as unprecedented;[29] unusually, Law was not accused of selling an illegal or restricted substance.[30]
He was initially charged with two counts of counselling or aiding suicide in relation to two Peel Region deaths.[31] In August 2023, Law was charged with 12 more counts of counselling or aiding suicide for other Ontario deaths.[32] He was additionally charged with 14 counts of second-degree murder in December,[33] which were upgraded to first-degree murder the following month.[34] In March 2024, Law maintained his innocence, with his lawyer stating that Law only sold an "otherwise legal product on the open market."[35] 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.[4]
His trial was originally to take place during September and October 2025.[36] 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's, that merely providing the means to commit suicide does not constitute murder.[37] This appeal caused Law's trial to be delayed to January 2026,[38] then spring 2026.[39] The Supreme Court did not unambiguously resolve this matter by the time of Law's conviction in May 2026,[40][15] leaving the Ontario Court of Appeals ruling standing. This made it impossible to move forward with a murder prosecution.[14]
On May 29, 2026, Law pleaded guilty to assisting the suicides of 14 Ontarians,[27] while prosecutors dismissed the murder charges as part of a plea deal.[41] Law also admitted responsibility for 79 suicides in the U.K. He is expected to be sentenced in September 2026, with the British deaths taken into account.[18] As of May 2026, he has continuously been in custody since his initial arrest.[14]
Civil case
In September 2024, the family of Jeshennia Bedoya Lopez, an Ontario woman who committed suicide, filed a lawsuit against him in the Superior Court of Justice. Law allegedly supplied her the means to kill herself. Seven of Lopez's doctors were also named in the lawsuit for allegedly failing to provide adequate care. They announced that they were seeking damages from both Law and the doctors.[42]
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.[43] Channel 4 commissioned a two-part documentary about Law, Poisoned: Killer in the Post,[44] which aired in July 2025.[45] Law has been described as a serial killer,[46] or something similar to one, by the press. A criminologist likened him to cult leaders and "angel of death" murderers.[47]
The families of Law's customers in the U.K. have called for a public inquiry. They formally petitioned for one in October 2025, but were rejected in March 2026.[15]
See also
- Right to die
- Suicide legislation
- William Melchert-Dinkel, an American nurse who encouraged suicides online