NEWMARKET — Kenneth Law is expected to plead guilty to 14 counts of counseling or aiding suicide in a Newmarket, Ontario, court. He is scheduled to appear in court to enter the plea, after which sentencing is expected to take place at a later date.

Canadian prosecutors will withdraw 14 murder charges in exchange for Law's guilty plea, his lawyer Matthew Gourlay said. The charges relate to 14 individuals across Ontario who were between the ages of 16 and 36.

Canadian police said Law, from the Toronto area, used a series of websites to market and sell sodium nitrite, a substance commonly used to cure meats that can be deadly if ingested. Police said he is suspected of sending at least 1,200 packages to more than 40 countries, with about 160 allegedly sent to addresses in Canada.

Law has been in custody since his arrest at his Mississauga, Ontario, home in May 2023. Authorities in the United States, Britain, Italy, Australia, and New Zealand have also conducted investigations into his activities. In 2023, British police were investigating the deaths of 88 people who bought products from Canada-based websites allegedly offering lethal substances to people at risk of self-harm.

A New Zealand coroner found that four people who died by suicide there had ordered items online from a business associated with Law, but noted that Law’s activities are outside the jurisdiction of New Zealand courts. Police in Canada and around the world have been investigating more than 100 suicides linked to Law.

Under Canadian law, aiding suicide carries a maximum sentence of 14 years in prison, while first-degree murder carries an automatic life sentence with no parole eligibility for 25 years. Assisted suicide has been legal in Canada since 2016 for adults 18 and older with a serious illness, disease, or disability, but only when administered by a physician following a formal request.

It is against Canadian law to recommend or counsel suicide. The current legal precedent holds that an alleged murderer must override the victim’s free will; otherwise, voluntarily taking poison is considered to break the chain of legal causation.

A father who holds Kenneth Law responsible for his son's death by suicide said little has been done to rein in the online trade of lethal substances that continues to claim lives in Canada and abroad.