Requiem for the Victims of a Suicide Enabler

"We are two people trying to survive the same loss while watching each other suffer. It terrifies me to think what would happen if we both collapse at the same time."

"We are two people clinging to each other because neither of us knows how to stand up on our own. The future we had imagined as a family disappeared."

"I saw my daughter pale, bruised and cold. That image became part of me."

"The place she went for understanding led her to greater danger [to a man who] paves a path to death..."

"How was I supposed to protect my daughter from something I didn't even know I was supposed to protect her from?"

Leonardo Bedoya Forero, Maria Lopez, parents of 18-year-old Jeshennia Bedoya-Lopez 

Families of poison seller Kenneth Law's alleged U.K. victims are sharing their anger and frustration that British authorities have chosen not to charge Law for dozens of deaths there because it's unlikely he'd be extradited. CBC

 

Justice Michelle Fuerst is presiding over family member testimony of people whose death by suicide was enabled by having ordered a poison advertised online and paid for through PayPal and Shopify by Kenneth Law who became known as the suicide poison merchant. The Ontario Crown wanted this man to be charged with murder and given a life sentence. Because of an unexpected legal complication a plea arrangement was agreed to; assistance for 14 suicides was all the Crown could manage in the criminal prosecution of a man who held the belief he was being of help to suicidal people. 

 

Facing sentencing for his crimes with the prospect of a 14-year maximum sentence, the potential of additional penalties related to his 14 admitted offences could see the 60-year-old facing consecutive sentences. Some of those present in the courtroom in Newmarket, Ontario -- there as family members of the deceased Kenneth Law is charged with providing the means for them to end their lives -- walked past his prisoner's box, their eyes averted, while others looked him in the eye, as they moved past.  

"There was a before, and then there is an after when we have gained membership in a club that nobody wants to be part of."

"I still write to Ashley, message here, in the hopes there's a small corner of the universe where she has written a system that is able to receive them."

"We all feel we should have been able to prevent Ashley's death, or to intervene in a way that would have changed the course of events."

Norson Harris, father of 26-year-old Ashley Harris  

This, only the first day of a hearing that will likely last for several weeks, as people read their victim impact statements, saw the convicted man sitting immobile, eyes cast downward, looking at no one. As they spoke, people emphasized the alteration that has taken place within, since the death of their loved ones, of their health, their emotions, their finances, their values and their responses to the stresses of life; their self-agency crushed, confidence in their capacity to face a world absent those they loved hampered by their bereft emotions.

 

It would not have endeared the enabler of their loved one's death to them, to know that he was not troubled by the act of assisting vulnerable people's suicidal intentions, even as he denied murdering anyone. A journalist had surreptitiously recorded his admissions during an interview that, when reviewed by authorities, led to his arrest. He appeared pleased that he had the solution to people's death wishes by offering a service he felt people had a right to. That he profited relatively modestly from providing the means by which they would die, was a source of pride.

 

Maria Lopez, mother of the late Jeshennia Bedoya-Lopez, speaks to members of the media outside the Superior Court of Justice building, in Newmarket, Ont. (Evan Mitsui/CBC)

 

There were in total 14 Ontario victims, whereas 79 people died with his assistance in Britain. In the United States, another number of people died, leaving it likely that well over a hundred people were aided in achieving their deaths through Kenneth Law's intervention. He is known to have sent 431 packages to the U.S., 330 to the U.K., and within Canada another 157, between 2021 to 2023. An international search to intercept those packages was undertaken.  

"My son is dead, he is gone, I am empty, hollow. If it hadn't been for your offence, perhaps Clayton [Choquette, 32] may still be here..."

"Your actions caused me to have no desire to live any longer, because Clayton is not here to share with."

"It is pointless. He was everything to me."

Cindy MacMinn 

Most of the deaths linked to this man's sale of assistive devices online were through poison dissolved in water and ingested, which went for $100, although he also sold more costly kits to enable asphyxiation by gas. He was estimated to have profited altogether in the amount of $300,000 for his little enterprise. As he sat through the proceedings impassively, the Crown began its proceedings on the basis of 74 victim impact statements, some of which were read out by their authors, others by prosecutors.

 

The father of Ashley Norton expressed the "small consolation" felt that Kenneth Law admitted responsibility, stating his own hope that the man recognizes the response he should have offered his customers would have preferentially been "that they were loved, they were not alone, and that help is available". Dozens more victim impact statements will be heard as the hearings continue to proceed in the weeks ahead.  

"There are things you do not realize you are memorizing while your child is still alive."

"[Like the sound of his] gallop [down the stairs to ask if the chicken and rice is ready]."

"Now it's one of the most precious memories of my life."
Sarjit Kaur Rana, Mother of Amrit Rana, 21  

The Superior Court of Justice building, in Newmarket, Ont., is pictured on Wednesday. (Evan Mitsui/CBC)

 

Merchant of Death

"It's a very ongoing investigation and it's a continuous investigation. And I can say that evidence has come in that supports the charge of second-degree murder."

"I can't speak to that evidence at this time to preserve the investigation."

"The victims and the survivors of this case are someone's son, daughter, brother, sister, mother or father. They're all people and they were loved by their family and friends who continue to live without them today."

"We are collaborating with law enforcement agencies on a daily basis globally, from countries all over the world."

"We are aware of a number of websites. One of the challenges that we face are a number of these sites are located in other countries where Canadian law does not apply or Canadian orders necessarily don't apply."

York Region Police Inspector Simon James 

Kenneth Law is seen outside the Mississauga, Ont. pharmacy where a post office box is linked to him. Law has been charged with murder in connection to multiple deaths in Ontario, CBC News

 

According to British police, 232 people have been identified as victims of this man's traffic in a deadly substance that he advertised specifically for people who were contemplating ending their lives. Of the total in the United Kingdom so far identified, 88 died, resulting from the products they had ordered from Canada-based websites linked to the man now in custody in Canada. In the United States, Italy, Australia and New Zealand authorities have also made announcements with respect to their own investigations.

The man, Kenneth Law, is accused of sending lethal substances to people who on receipt of what they ordered took their own lives. He has been charged with 14 counts of second-degree murder in addition to 14 charges of counselling and aiding suicide. All 28 charges levelled against the man relate to the same 14 victims who were aged 15 to 36 and lived and died across Ontario, from Thunder Bay in the north and London, in Ontario's south-west. Several victims were under age 18.

According to police, the 58-year-old Mississauga resident operated a number of websites whose use was to advertise, advise prospective clients, and sell sodium nitrite, along with other related items used for self-harm. These products were shipped out to over 40 countries, in roughly 1,200 packages; 150 within Canada. Authorities are investigating possible links between deaths in their jurisdictions and the activities of Kenneth Law in other regions of Canada and other countries. 

Authorities in New Zealand, France, Ireland, Italy, Germany and Switzerland have all confirmed Law shipped packages to addresses in their respective countries. A number of Canadian police forces outside of Ontario are also reviewing past sudden deaths in light of the investigation of this man's activities. Through his lawyer, Kenneth Law is pleading 'not guilty' to the charges brought against him.

 

A former cook, Law is well aware that sodium nitrite, commonly used as a food preservative, can be lethal in large doses. York Regional Police revealed in August their belief that about 160 packages were  forwarded on order by clients of his website to addresses in Canada. Once a chef at Toronto’s Royal York Hotel as well as being a former engineer, Law states he is not responsible for what people do with his products.

 

He has not yet faced any charges abroad in connection with his online businesses. However, there is evidence an FBI investigation in the U.S. is progressing.