A Mississauga man who has admitted to selling a potentially lethal product over the internet, which was linked to deaths in Britain and the United States, has been arrested and will be charged for counselling suicide in the deaths of two Canadians, police say.
Kenneth Law, 57, was arrested Tuesday and will make his initial appearance in a Brampton court on Wednesday.
Peel Regional Police Deputy Chief Marc Andrews told reporters that officers are in the early phases of an investigation that is international in scope.
The force says the criminal charges it is pursuing relate to the deaths of Canadians in its jurisdiction, which includes the cities of Brampton and Mississauga. “We’ve identified two victims, both in the Region of Peel,” Deputy Chief Andrews said. “We would not have laid the charges if we did not have the grounds to lay those charges.”
Peel Regional Police investigators arrested and charged 57-year-old Kenneth Law of Mississauga on May 2, following an investigation involving the online sale and distribution of sodium nitrite.Peel Regional Police/Supplied
The continuing probe centres on Mr. Law’s shipping of sodium nitrite, a curing salt used to preserve meat, but which has become popular online in forums that attract people seeking to end their lives.
Deputy Chief Andrews urged people who received packages from Mr. Law to contact suicide hotlines and police, as detectives continue to work with national and international partners to assess other crimes and deaths.
“We’re aware that packages have been shipped to over 40 countries. We’re aware of 1,200 packages that have been shipped,” he said.
The British newspaper Times of London first named Mr. Law in a report last week, saying his shipments factored in up to seven deaths, including a 17-year-old boy in the United States and four British citizens in their 20s and 30s.
A call to Mr. Law’s cellphone went directly to voicemail on Tuesday evening. It is not known if he has retained legal counsel.
When contacted by The Globe and Mail last week, Mr. Law denied he was targeting buyers who wanted to kill themselves and said the Times misrepresented his comments to their reporter. He said he began selling a legal food product after going bankrupt at the start of the pandemic.
Deputy Chief Andrews said the Peel investigation had begun in late March when police learned a local adult had died of sodium nitrite poisoning. “The substance was believed to have been purchased through an online company owned by Kenneth Law,” he said.
Peel Police allege Mr. Law controlled five corporately branded online sites: Imtime Cuisine, AmbuCA, Academic, Escape Mode, and ICemac.
“If you notice payments or transactions related to any one of these companies, please contact us,” Deputy Chief Andrews said.
He said police don’t know how many of the shipped packages under investigation would have contained sodium nitrite. He did not answer a question about whether Mr. Law was being investigated for shipping other kinds of products.
Mr. Law confirmed to The Globe last week that he was selling sodium nitrite online. “I’m selling a legal product, okay. And what the person does with it? I have no control,” he said.
At the time, he said, police had not contacted him and he was not breaking any laws. “Soya sauce is a poison if you consume sufficient amounts, right?” he said. “So is salt and sugar too, okay, so it all depends on how you look at it within context.”
Warnings from Peel Regional Police are being amplified by other authorities. The Ontario Provincial Police released its own advisory about sodium nitrite late Tuesday evening, saying that the substance was “sent to people potentially at risk of self-harm across Ontario.”
Canada’s Criminal Code says anyone who counsels or aids a person to die by suicide can face up to a 14-year prison term.
Last week, Health Canada said it has been tracking a trend of people trying to harm themselves with sodium nitrite and more than a year ago, the federal department issued guidance to hospitals on an antidote for those who are suffering poisonings.
Dr. Tyler Hickey, the lead author of an Ontario study that discovered a spike in related suicides over 2019 and 2020, told The Globe last week the federal government should review how sodium nitrite is regulated in this country.
One of the British citizens who died was Neha Susan Raju, a 23-year-old woman from Guildford, Surrey, whose body was found in her bedroom with a suicide note last July. The British coroner’s report into her death referenced how there are online communities of people discussing suicide and “no protection is afforded to vulnerable people prior to them making such purchases.”
As part of its protocol, the coroner’s office mails a copy of its reports to those connected with a death. A copy of the findings into Ms. Raju’s death was mailed to a post office box in Mississauga associated with a business run by Mr. Law.