An 81-year-old Toronto man who has become the first person in Ontario to be granted a physician-assisted death is now pleading with the federal government to bring in new legislation soon so that others don’t have to go through the same process as he did.

“This decision allows me, with the support of caring doctors, to die with dignity,” the man, identified only as A.B., said in a statement read by his lawyer in court on Thursday after a judge granted him a constitutional exemption for an assisted death.

“My only regret in these last months is that my family and I have had to expend what little energy I have left to fight this court battle. My wish is that our government will see fit to make permanent changes in the law so that no other family will have to do this ever again.”

It’s the third known instance in Canada outside Quebec where an application to have an assisted death has been allowed and the first in Ontario since the Supreme Court gave the government an extension earlier this year to craft new legislation around the issue. The deadline is June 6.

In the interim, the top court said that individuals seeking an assisted death could apply to a judge for a constitutional exemption.

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“It is extraordinary news and we think that compassion won the day for Mr. A.B. and his family,” said Shanaaz Gokool, chief executive officer of Dying with Dignity Canada.

“We categorically reject the idea that a judicial authorization process is what will be required after June 6. The court system is clogged up as it is, and more importantly, this is a private health matter, and no other health matter requires having to go before a justice.”

A.B. is suffering intolerable pain from aggressive, advanced stage lymphoma. His lawyer, Andrew Faith, told Superior Court Justice Paul Perell that his condition is only worsening and he is looking to receive a physician-assisted death as early as this weekend.

The man’s wife, daughter and physicians also submitted affidavits supporting his request.

Faith said he was grateful that the judge delivered his ruling soon after a 30-minute court hearing due to the urgency of the situation. He called these types of applications “unprecedented.”

“There is now a precedent created in Ontario, by Justice Perell, by this decision today, and it will be of good guidance to other courts in the future that have to consider these applications,” Faith told reporters.

Perell, who became visibly emotional at times as he read his 17-page judgment, said he found that A.B. met the criteria set out in the Supreme Court’s landmark 2015 ruling striking down the Criminal Code ban on physician-assisted death:

The person is a competent adult; has a “grievous and irremediable” condition such as an illness or disability; the condition is causing the person to suffer “intolerable suffering”; the suffering cannot be alleviated by treatment available to the person that he or she finds acceptable; and the person clearly consents to ending their life.

“The court is not dispensing justice,” Perell said. “A physician-assisted death application is not a matter of granting awards and remedies to victims or righteous persons or of punishing wrongdoers; it is a matter of investigating and determining whether the criteria for a physician-assisted death are satisfied.”

He also granted A.B. a declaration that the coroner need not be notified of his death, saying he agreed with his lawyers’ submission that his death would “not be a death from a cause other than by disease.” A.B.’s family was concerned the coroner might consider his death as having stemmed from non-natural causes that could spark an investigation and autopsy.

Physician-assisted death remains a divisive topic as the government’s June 6 deadline looms. The archbishop of Toronto, Cardinal Thomas Collins, has spoken out against it, particularly criticizing a joint parliamentary committee’s recommendation that doctors who refuse to provide an assisted death should refer the patient to a physician who will.

Two other individuals, in Calgary and Winnipeg, have so far been granted constitutional exemptions. An 85-year-old man with multiple myeloma will be asking a Superior Court judge in Toronto for an exemption on April 5.

A.B. was diagnosed with lymphoma in 2012, according to court documents. He has undergone several rounds of chemotherapy and radiation since then and began seeing a palliative-care physician earlier this year.

He described experiencing “a tremendous amount of boney pain” and an inability to stand or sit up without assistance.

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“For all of my love of life I do not fear death,” the father and grandfather said in his affidavit.

“In the early stages of the disease I fought back hard as long as there was hope for recovery. I held out hope that I would be able to improve my well-being.

“Only when the pain became too much to bear and it became evident that there was no positive outcome did I turn my focus to managing my own death. I have a strong wish to die with dignity at the time of my choosing.”