Lawyers for a man accused of selling poison online to people who later used it to take their own lives are seeking to intervene in an application to Canada’s top court that they argue could affect his criminal case.
The legal team representing Kenneth Law has filed a motion for leave to intervene after prosecutors asked the Supreme Court of Canada to urgently review a recent Ontario ruling in a different case that could undermine the murder charges against him.
Law faces 14 counts each of first-degree murder and aiding suicide in a case scheduled to go to trial next September. He’s expected to plead not guilty.
In their application filed last month, lawyers writing for the Attorney General of Ontario pointed to Law’s impending trial as a reason for the Supreme Court to consider an expedited review of a ruling delivered by the province’s top court in June.
That ruling suggests a person may only be liable for murder if they provided a person who committed suicide with the lethal substance and “overbore the victim’s freewill in choosing suicide.”
Law’s lawyers argue in their motion that the Criminal Code distinguishes between homicide and assisting suicide.
“Mr. Law is not alleged to have been present at any of the deaths,” they wrote in the document.
“It would impermissibly warp the language of the Criminal Code to assert that someone who provides a toxic substance that another person later voluntarily consumes in another location has ‘actually committed’ their murder.”
They further argue their client has “a direct stake” in the Crown’s application, “as he may be adversely affected by this court’s decision.”
Crown lawyers have argued that the standard set in the Ontario ruling shifts focus from the accused’s actions to the victim’s intent, which may be unknowable in cases where the victim dies.
Police have said all charges against Law relate to the same 14 people, who were between the ages of 16 and 36 and died in communities across Ontario.
Investigators have alleged that Law ran several websites that were used to sell sodium nitrite and other items that can be used for self-harm, shipping them to people in more than 40 countries.
If you or someone you know is thinking about suicide, support is available 24/7 by calling or texting 988, Canada’s national suicide prevention helpline.