'Broke all of our hearts': Families give testimony at Kenneth Law sentencing

Adienne Dalli, who lost her brother Maurizio Vadala, speaks with media outside Newmarket Superior Court of Justice after making a victim impact statement in the trial of Kenneth Law on Wednesday September 23, 2026. Photo by Jon BlackerArticle contentNEWMARKET, ONT. — No matter what prison sentence is ultimately imposed on the suicide poison merchant Kenneth Law, Wednesday’s proceedings before Justice Michelle Fuerst had the deflated air of inadequate compromise.

Rather, testimony from family members of people who died by suicide with Law’s poison during the pandemic was a heart-rending litany of grief and loss.

“My son is dead, he is gone, I am empty, hollow,” Cindy MacMinn said in an angry voice through tears. “If it hadn’t been for your offence, perhaps Clayton (Choquette, 32) may still be here … Your actions caused me to have no desire to live any longer, because Clayton is not there to share with. It is pointless. He was everything to me.”

Get a dash of perspective along with the trending news of the day in a very readable format.

A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder.

The next issue of NP Posted will soon be in your inbox.

We encountered an issue signing you up. Please try again

“There are things you do not realize you are memorizing while your child is still alive,” like the sound of his “gallop” down the stairs to ask if the chicken and rice is ready, said Sarjit Kaur Rana, mother of Amrit Rana, 21. “Now it’s one of the most precious memories of my life.”

The Ontario Crown originally wanted Law to get life for murder, but a legal obstacle rose up unexpectedly in an unrelated case. So the plea deal agreed in May on assisting 14 suicides was the best the Crown could legally do.

Now, Law faces sentencing for a crime with a maximum sentence of 14 years, but the possibility that some penalties for his 14 admitted offences could be imposed consecutively. He is 60 years old.

Some of the people who delivered victim impact statements looked Law in the eye and said his name, with one man even warning Law that he would always be vigilant in case he ever tried to sell poison again. “He was ill and he needed help and I tried my best to give him that help,” said Stephen Mitchell, Sr., father of Stephen Mitchell, Jr., who died by suicide aged 21. “Mr. Law robbed my son of the chance to be healed.”

“Mr. Law broke all of our hearts,” said Greg Bryson, father of Tyler Bryson, 34, a professional commercial pilot. He “knowingly took actions to steal something so precious in all of our lives.”

Others determinedly did not say Law’s name, and walked past his prisoner’s box with their eyes on the back wall of the courtroom in Newmarket, Ont.

One dramatic moment came when a woman told court she had taken Law’s poison in an effort to end her life but survived thanks to medical care, and has been left guilt stricken as a survivor.

A striking commonality across the many victim impact statements on this first day of a hearing expected to last several weeks was how many people have taken stock of their own life through their grief, and found a new sense that it is broken into unfamiliar chapters, punctuated by absences.

Many took note of the numerical fact that some day will come when their loved one’s absence grows longer than their presence was.

Over and over again, people said there was a before, and now there is an after. Their health has changed, emotions, finances, values, responses to the stresses of life.