One year after Mississauga, Ont. resident Kenneth Law was charged with aiding and abetting suicides in Canada, Britain and some U.S. states restricted the sale of a toxic salt, which is used to cure meats at lower concentrations but can kill people in small doses at higher levels of purity.Arlyn McAdorey/The Canadian Press
New Zealand is the latest country to crack down on the online sales of a food additive after a coroner on the archipelago linked four recent suicides to Kenneth Law, the Mississauga man accused of killing 14 people in Ontario after selling them the substance.
New Zealand coroner Alexandra Cunninghame said her country has formed a working group of customs officials and representatives from its Environmental Protection Authority and Ministry for the Environment with the aim of restricting the importation of the toxic salt. The four deaths investigated by Ms. Cunninghame occurred after purchases made in 2022 and 2023.
A year after Mr. Law was charged with aiding and abetting suicides in Canada, Britain and some U.S. states have restricted the sale of the salt, which is used to cure bacon and other meats at lower concentrations but can kill people in small doses at higher levels of purity. Canadian regulators have so far not followed suit despite calls for restrictions from coroners, medical advocates and families of those who died taking the substance.
Documents obtained by The Globe and Mail under freedom of information laws show Health Canada does not regard the substance as a threat “when used as intended.”
Ms. Cunninghame’s findings, completed in February and shared with Canadian media this week, also note Mr. Law is accused of “assisting suicides by enabling the distribution and marketing of materials online, and hosting discussion forums for people considering suicide.”
The reports analyzed the deaths of two university students, a 21-year-old woman and a 40-year-old personal trainer and DJ.
She noted New Zealand’s Suicide Prevention Office has also consulted with internet service providers to request blocking access to Mr. Law’s websites. These sites had already been taken offline by web-hosting giant Shopify after a Times of London investigation into his alleged activities was published just before his arrest in May of last year.
Last summer, the coroner’s reports note, New Zealand’s independent censorship body found eight discussion threads from online suicide forums associated with Mr. Law “objectionable” under the country’s federal decency laws, but noted people post on these discussion forums daily and there is no way to stop them.
Families of people who have died after ingesting poison allegedly bought from Mr. Law’s constellation of companies, as well as one Scottish woman who took some but was rescued, told The Globe this month that users on one of these forums directed them to his Canadian businesses.
Ms. Cunninghame’s reports noted Mr. Law is not facing any charges in connection with the four deaths she investigated and that his alleged activities are outside the jurisdiction of the New Zealand courts.
Authorities have said they believe Mr. Law, a 58-year-old former engineer and chef, shipped more than 1,200 packages to more than 40 countries.
Mr. Law’s lawyer, Matthew Gourlay, did not immediately respond to a request to comment on the New Zealand findings. But he has said his client intends to plead not guilty to first-degree murder charges involving a group of Ontarians between the ages of 16 and 40. Mr. Law, he has said, will also plead not guilty to 14 charges of counselling those same people to kill themselves.
In an interview with The Globe a week before his arrest, Mr. Law maintained he had no control over what his clients did with the chemical.
No other charges have been brought against Mr. Law in other jurisdictions. But politicians in three U.S. states have introduced or passed laws restricting the sale of the chemical Mr. Law says he sold, and a bill currently before U.S. legislature would impose nationwide restrictions.
Meanwhile, in Britain, new rules announced by the British Home Office last October require vendors to relay information about suspicious transactions involving the toxic salt to the government within 24 hours and turn over names, e-mail addresses and payment information. Britain also announced last fall it was launching a suicide surveillance tool as an early warning system about changes in suicide rates and methods.
With a report from The Canadian Press
Editor’s note: An earlier version of this article incorrectly identified Kenneth Law’s lawyer as Michael Gourlay. This version has been corrected.