Francesca Bouaoun woke up on Oct. 3, and looked out the window of her 28th-floor condo, which towers over Toronto’s waterfront with views of Lake Ontario.

The trees below were gone.

The headlines followed: the night before, under cover of darkness, contractors for the province of Ontario had ripped down more than 800 mature trees from West Island, one of two small artificial islands off the coast of Lake Ontario in Toronto’s downtown district that make up Ontario Place.

Ms. Bouaoun, a birder, had built a wellness routine and found community among the trees, which she said had helped her mentally survive the pandemic.

The removal of the trees last October was part of the province’s preparation of the site for a European company that had won a bid to build and operate a major water park and spa on the island. Details of that deal are the subject of a Times investigation.

For residents who had protested the commercial use of the island, the removal of the trees felt like a step closer to the inevitable.