If there was a nook or cranny in Toronto, Ninjalicious probably explored it.

Ninjalicious was the pseudonym of Jeff Chapman, one of the pioneers of urban exploring and “infiltrating” buildings, tunnels and other places that were generally off limits to the public. This Sunday is the 10th anniversary of his death from cancer at age 31, but his Toronto legend and worldwide influence live on.

In 1996, Chapman began publishing Infiltration, “the zine about going places you’re not supposed to go,” chronicling his exploration of the Greater Toronto Area. A zine is a do-it-yourself magazine, often photocopied and stapled together, a kind of hard-copy blog before blogs existed.

A website, infiltration.org, was also launched and Chapman’s explorations included the Canada Malting Plant on the waterfront, the abandoned Whitby Psychiatric Hospital, the sewer under St. Clair Ave., and St. Mike’s hospital, a place where he spent considerable time during his long illness.

Infiltration helped create a movement of urban explorers around the world and Chapman is regarded as a folk hero to other explorers. It was all a little bit goofy and the exploring was done with some humour, hence the name Ninjalicious: serious exploring that didn’t take itself completely seriously.

In 2005, just before his death, he published Access All Areas: a user’s guide to the art of urban exploring. The book is comprehensive, covering infiltration issues such as training (give up smoking), sneaking (how to move stealthily) and how to talk to people in order to gain access to places (smile and play dumb). But there is also considerable focus on both the safety and ethics of urban exploring. Take nothing, leave no trace and do it safely were Chapman’s guiding principles.

Not all who have followed in his footsteps are as cautious. Today, videos of daredevils climbing skyscraper construction cranes without safety harnesses go viral and, in recent years, careless explorers have died in Toronto at the abandoned Hearn Generating Station in the Port Lands and at the old Knox College at 1 Spadina Cres.

Apart from the interest in urban exploring itself, Infiltration got people excited about Toronto when there wasn’t much excitement in the city about the city. Soon after the zine was founded, the city was amalgamated and went into a kind of civic doldrums.

When I arrived in Toronto in 2000, quite excited to be here and already in love with the city before I moved up the 401 from Windsor, I was surprised to find the prevailing sentiment from residents wasn’t love, but indifference or outright disdain for the city — a condition that lingers today, despite Drake’s best efforts.

When I stumbled upon Infiltration a few months after I got here on the zine rack in Suspect Video behind Honest Ed’s, it was the first time I found something that expressed a genuine and curious fascination about this place.

I’m not into sneaking around off-limits places myself, too nervous, but I’m glad Chapman did and reported what was there, just as I’m glad “drainers,” a subset of infiltrators who explore sewers, get dirty so we can appreciate what lays below the city.

Photographer Derek Wuenschirs discovered Infiltration when he was exploring the steam tunnels under Centennial College on Carlaw Ave. and the Royal York hotel.

“I was floored to find out there was a zine catering to other weirdos like me and we soon met up in person,” he recalls. Later, they both worked on Consumers Rd. in North York and would go exploring after work, Wuenschirs sometimes taking pictures along the way.

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Ninjalicious helped start a global movement, but his GTA explorations showed there were more layers to this place than most of us get to see. He made Toronto seem exciting and worth paying attention to.