ST. CATHARINES, Ont. — Gigi and Nick are stoking a fire on the right bank of Twelve Mile Creek. It is the sunset hour in St. Catharines, Ont., but the atmosphere is damp and heavy from a November morning rain.

There is not another soul in sight, down here in the riverside parklands below a street called Gale Crescent, a few blocks east of downtown. For kindling, Gigi has scavenged an armful of twigs from the municipal shrubbery. She stacks it inside a makeshift hearth of flagstones and tries to get it to catch, but the twigs are wet and will not accept the flame from Nick’s pocket lighter.

Nick Dunits is 25, hooded, mustached and thinly bearded, soft-spoken, downcast, defeated. His running shoes are brand new. Gigi is mature, self-aware, alert, conversational, with streaky brown-blond ha

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