22-05-2025
Supreme Court hears whether suspect may face murder charges in suicide case
The Supreme Court of Canada has heard arguments about whether murder charges may be laid against a criminal suspect who is also charged with assisting the suicide of the same victim.
Thursday's hearing sets the stage for a ruling that will have an impact on next year's trial of Kenneth Law, a Mississauga man who is accused of selling a salt compound toxic in large doses to people who planned to use it to kill themselves.
Mr. Law has been charged with 14 counts of first-degree murder and aiding suicide and his trial is expected to begin in January.
The top court's proceeding Thursday involves a nurse who was convicted of two counts of attempted murder for injecting lethal levels of insulin into herself, her mother and her 19-month-old daughter. The accused and the victims are not being identified in court. A suicide note was found at the scene.
The Supreme Court is considering whether the judge erred in the nurse's case by distinguishing between charges of murder and charges of aiding suicide. The panel of Ontario Court of Appeal judges concluded merely giving someone a substance that was then used by that person to attempt suicide would not be enough to support a murder or an attempted murder conviction.
Instead, the Ontario appeal court ruled, to support any murder charge the Crown would need to demonstrate that an accused actively helped cause the suicide in a way that 'overbore the victim's freewill.'
In their earlier submission to the Supreme Court, Crown lawyers warned that the Ontario appeal court ruling could make it difficult to prosecute Mr. Law on the more serious charges of murder that he faces.
Prosecutors representing the Attorney-General of Ontario launched a petition last September asking the Supreme Court for an urgent ruling on the circumstances under which homicide and counselling suicide may overlap.
The nurse was represented at the Supreme Court by Matthew Gourlay, a criminal lawyer who is also representing Mr. Law.
'There is no such thing in Canadian law as a single death that is both a murder and a suicide,' said Mr. Gourlay.
'So what if you gave a gun to someone who has expressed a view that this is something they wanted to do?' asked Justice Andromache Karakatsanis in her questions to the lawyers in the room. 'That you provide the gun at the time you know they are particularly vulnerable at a particular period of depression?'
Mr. Gourlay argued that a murder charge could not lawfully arise from such a scenario.
He urged the top court to tell police and prosecutors they must refrain from laying homicide charges in counselling-suicide cases where an accused is not physically present or wielding a weapon.
Mr. Law faces a maximum penalty of 14 years in a penitentiary if convicted on assisting suicide but a life sentence if guilty of murder.
His name was never mentioned in the courtroom Thursday.
All nine Supreme Court justices heard the case and did not say when they will release their pending ruling.
