It started with needles.

They began appearing on the ground around the South Riverdale Community Health Centre with increasing regularity after a new safe injection site opened there in late 2017. South Riverdale is an independent centre built in 1998 in Leslieville, just east of downtown Toronto, home to about 30,000 people. It also happens to be across the street from the house where I have lived with my wife and son for 14 years.

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Used needles also started popping up in the rear lanes on both sides of Heward Avenue, my street. These lanes are playgrounds for the many children who live on these streets, relatively traffic-free spaces where they can ride their bikes, play catch and shoot at basketball and hockey nets.