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Defence lawyer Matthew Gourlay stands beside Kenneth Law as the indictment is read in court in Newmarket, Ont., in May.Illustration by Pam Davies
09/23/26 09:59
Sentencing hearing set to begin
– Colin Freeze
I’m Colin Freeze and I report on crime, justice and security issues for The Globe and Mail.
This morning I’m outside Courtroom 108 in Newmarket, north of Toronto, and bracing for the start of Kenneth Law’s sentencing hearing.
Crown attorney Peter Westgate has just told me that he anticipates the court will hear victim impact statements from a total of 74 people. I’m seeing British law enforcement officials arrive and introduce themselves to their Canadian counterparts. Parents of young people who took their lives are filtering in.
Seventy-four victim impact statements is a staggering number. It represents an impending outpouring of grief and loss on a scale unlike anything the Canadian criminal justice system has seen in recent memory. Many of these statements will come from parents of vulnerable teens and twentysomethings.
All this speaks to the global nature of Mr. Law’s crimes. In May, the 61-year-old former engineer from Mississauga pleaded guilty to aiding in the suicides of 14 people in Ontario. He also admitted to assisting in the deaths of 79 people in the U.K.
Mr. Westgate says that the statements will start with Ontario families. But he also anticipates two British witnesses will soon speak – including a person who is a “survivor.”
Until his arrest in 2023, Mr. Law operated a business selling repurposed industrial goods – toxic salts and other deadly paraphernalia – to people he met in online suicide forums. He admitted to shipping hundreds of packages to dozens of countries, selling his products for as little as US$80.
09/23/26 09:15
The stories of five victims, and their families’ grief
– Mike Hager, Colin Freeze
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Five of Law’s victims, clockwise from top left: Ethan Mitchell with photo of brother Stephen Jr.; Jeshennia Bedoya-Lopez; David Parfett with photo of son Tom; Kim Prosser holds a photo of her late son Ashtyn Prosser-Blake; Imogen (Immy) Nunn.Supplied
The sentencing hearing is scheduled to run for several days as the families of victims from Canada and the U.K. provide victim-impact statements. But many have shared that no words can capture the losses of their family members.
Kenneth Law’s victims in Ontario included two 16-year-olds, a 21-year-old found dead by his brother and a 19-year-old honour-roll student, as well as dozens more in the U.K. whose deaths he has admitted a role in.
Here are five of their stories.
09/23/26 09:12
Why Kenneth Law won’t face charges in the U.K.
– Paul Waldie
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Police walk past the Ontario Superior Court of Justice in Newmarket this past May.Sammy Kogan/The Globe and Mail
Britain’s Crown Prosecution Service told the families of victims that they will not be seeking extradition and instead handed their evidence over to Canada for the judge to consider during Law’s sentencing.
“After careful assessment, we agreed that Mr. Law should be sentenced for the full extent of his offending within a single sentencing process in Canada. This approach is not unusual in cases involving serious offending that crosses international borders,” said a letter sent to the families in May. The CPS added that while “this may be painful to hear,” the decision was reached after a detailed consideration of all options.
In a press release that week, Britain’s National Crime Agency said Law’s actions in that country will be taken into account in his sentencing in Canada. This “is an outcome that guarantees all victims and families in the U.K. will see justice,” the press release said.
Read the full story here.
09/23/26 09:10
Victims’ families will renew calls for public inquiries
– Mike Hager
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Stephen Mitchell Sr., whose son Stephen Jr. was among Law’s victims, says he will use his victim impact statement to again call for a public inquiry into the deaths.Sammy Kogan/The Globe and Mail
Some families are planning to use their victim impact statements to push for further scrutiny into how Kenneth Law’s operation continued for years.
Stephen Mitchell died in Toronto about a month before Kenneth Law was arrested. He was 21.
His father, Stephen Sr., said his son suffered from depression and stopped taking his medication. He paid US$87.17 via PayPal for a package of poison from Law and was found dead by his brother on March 25, 2023.
Mitchell said his son’s death was preventable and he plans to make that point when he gives his victim-impact statement.
“I do intend on calling for a formal inquiry,” he said in an interview with The Globe and Mail.
That anger is shared by the family of Imogen Nunn, who was 25 when she was found dead on New Year’s Day, 2023, after she purchased a poison packet from Law.
“I just think the government needs to just sit back and actually listen. Maybe they should be in their courtroom hearing about all our loved ones that we have lost,” her mother, Laurie Nunn, said in an interview from England. “The heartbreak, the pain that you know we’ve gone through and we’re still going through.
“It’s like …. it’s like we’ve just been left.”
Nunn said people need to pay attention the policy implications of the case, given how a Canadian online business escaped police scrutiny for years despite cultivating a global notoriety in selling suicide substances to young people who used them.
09/23/26 09:05
What to know about Kenneth Law’s guilty plea
– Colin Freeze
In May, Kenneth Law pleaded guilty in an Ontario court to aiding in the suicides of 14 people in Ontario, and also admitted to assisting in 79 other deaths in Britain by shipping toxic substances and suffocation equipment to people seeking to die.
Mr. Law operated an online business selling the products. He was charged in 2023 with the 14 deaths, including two minors. Each victim was named by the court.
Prior to pleading guilty to the 14 counts of aiding suicide, a grey-haired Mr. Law signed a lengthy agreed statement of facts, which was read aloud in court by prosecutors.
In the agreed facts, Mr. Law admits to shipping hundreds of packages of his products from a Canada Post office near his Mississauga home. Prosecutors named dozens of countries that received shipments but said most went to the United States (431 packages), Britain (330) and Canada (157).
09/23/26 09:00
A timeline of key events in the Kenneth Law case
– The Canadian Press
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A photo of Kenneth Law is shown during a police press conference announcing his arrest in Mississauga, Ont., in 2023.Arlyn McAdorey/The Canadian Press
Nearly four years since a coroner’s report on woman’s death in the U.K. listed details police later linked to Kenneth Law in Ontario, the marathon criminal proceedings in Canada are nearing a close.
But the path to Law’s guilty pleas for aiding 14 suicides in Canada – and his admission of involvement in dozens more abroad – has not been a straight line.
Here is a timeline of key events in the case, and how we got to the Ontario court sentencing hearing starting today.