One freezing morning last winter, as Torontonians hurried past him at one of the country’s busiest intersections, a homeless man dressed in only a T-shirt, jeans and a hospital bracelet was found dead in a bus shelter at Yonge and Dundas Sts.

Passing by that same shelter this month, street nurse and advocate for the homeless Cathy Crowe was shocked to see it decked with ads for winter coats and boots, with the words “Share the warmth.”

“The wording was particularly offensive,” she said. “It was just too ironic for words.

“The circumstances in the city are that the warmth isn’t shared. We don’t have enough shelter beds; people are sleeping outside.”

After Crowe complained to the city and Astral Out-of-Home which supplies the shelter and sells advertising space, the offending phrasing was removed Tuesday.

Crowe calls it “a partial win,” but said she hopes the incident draws attention to risks homeless people face sleeping on the street as nights get colder.

“I do think it was inadvertent, but it slipped through the cracks, and I think it’s kind of awakened the city and Astral Out-of-Home to an additional issue,” she said.

Peter Bartrem, who is in charge of sales of bus shelter ads at Astral Out-of-Home, said the wording was removed on behalf of advertiser Pajar Canada after the company was notified.

He said whether to remove the ads altogether is a discussion “still taking place with the client.”

Emily Young Lee, a spokesperson for Bell Media which owns Astral Out-of-Home, called the ads an “unfortunate coincidence with respect to a tragedy that occurred last year.”

“We apologize for any offence it may have caused,” she wrote in an emailed statement.

Jacques Golbert, president of Pajar Canada, the Montreal-based company behind the ads, said “share the warmth” is a national ad campaign.

“It has nothing to do with that particular tragic event, which we were not even aware of,” he said, adding the company did not intend to offend anyone.

Melissa Goldstein, who heard about the ads from a Facebook post Crowe made, said she also found the wording offensive and is happy it’s been taken down.

“That location is not just another bus shelter. That’s a location where somebody froze to death,” she said.

Lea Ann Mallett, who has a background working with the homeless, calls the ads a “double whammy of offensiveness.”

“I think that’s a really unfortunate hijack of a term that’s usually used in a charitable context,” she said.

Mallett would like to see the ads taken down all together. “There are moments when we have to honour the memory of someone who passed away before we respect the need for advertising,” she said.

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

Elyse Parker, director of the public realm section at Toronto transportation services, said she feels taking down the text was appropriate.

“Streets and locations on streets have meaning for all of us. They understood the sensitivity in that location, and I think they responded quite promptly.”

Parker said there have been very early discussions about the possibility of placing information at city bus shelters — to make sure people understand they can call 311 for help in getting a street outreach worker to connect with a homeless person in distress.

“The issue is not advertising; it’s homelessness,” she said.

Correction-November 12, 2015: This article was edited from a previous version that referred to Astral Out-of-Home by its former name of Astral Media.