Protesters say they will plant 2,224 crosses in the grass of a Downtown Eastside park today to remember B.C. victims of illicit drug overdoses.

The group Collective Resistance to Injustice is organizing the graphic protest, saying crosses to be set up in Oppenheimer Park represent the number of illicit drug overdose victims in this province over the last three years.

Organizers say today's protest mirrors a similar one 20 years ago when 1,000 crosses were planted in the same park to remember the rapidly increasing number of victims of opioid overdoses and HIV.

Collective Resistance to Injustice says in a Facebook post that the demonstration in 1997 led to the formation of the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users and eventually to the development of Insite – Canada's first free-standing safe injection site.