Ontario’s first legal assisted death near

Man wants to control how his ‘journey’ ends

• An Ontario judge has agreed to allow a terminally ill man to have doctors help him die, likely this weekend.

Superior Court Justice Paul Perell gave the green light after a 30-minute hearing Thursday. He also agreed there would be no need to notify the coroner after the man, identified in court only as A.B., dies.

Neither the federal nor provincial government opposed the man’s request.

It’s the first case in Ontario — and the third in Canada outside Quebec — in which someone has sought an exemption to Criminal Code provisions on assisted suicide under a recent Supreme Court of Canada ruling.

Quebec has its own legislative regime on the matter.

The now 81- year- old man was diagnosed in 2012 with lymphoma and is essentially bed- ridden and in unbearable pain.

“I grant the application,” said Perell, who said the married grandfather’s condition and circumstances meet all the criteria for the exemption. Those include his being mentally competent, in extreme pain, and freely making the assisted-death request without coercion or manipulation.

“For all of my love of life, I do not fear death,” the man said in an affidavit. “I have a strong wish to die with dignity at the time of my choosing.”

In addressing the court, lawyer Andrew Faith told the court his client’s condition was worsening and stressed the urgency of the request to die.

The patient, in a statement issued by his law firm, thanked the court, but said his only regret during recent months was that he has had to expend what little energy he has left to pursue the 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,” he said. “I believe firmly the right to die with dignity is a right that should be available to all Canadians to exercise according to their circumstances and beliefs.”

He said assisted death will relieve him from mental and physical pain, but more important will allow him to be in control of how and when his “journey” ends.