Wayne Duhaney: Harm Reduction Worker, Youth Mentor, Community Leader, Historian

Wayne Duhaney: Harm Reduction Worker, Youth Mentor, Community Leader, Historian

I was born in Jamaica on January 1, 1968.

People call me Duhaney or D Berg.

My mom migrated here in 1970 and I came in 1975 when I was 7 years old. I lived with my mom for 2 years and then my grandfather until I came here. His name was Edgar Lee, I called him Dadda. I’m the oldest in my family. There’s me and then my two sisters Carol and Diane. They were both born here.

Wayne at Unison Health and Community Services


Where did you live when you first came to Canada?

Lawrence & Don Mills. I lived there until I came to Jungle which was in 1979. I was about 11 years old. We moved to Cather.

Yea I remember. It was the best experience of my life to that point. Before I came here, I experienced a lot of racial discrimination. Me and my sisters were the only black people at the school where we went at Lawrence and Don Mills. Being called Buckwheat, things like that, fighting in school. I felt like those people didn’t like me. The last year there I went to school I went to Gateway School near Flemmo Park and that was a bit closer to me. When I came to Lawrence Heights it was all different. People were talking to me, they were talking Patois. I seen a lot more people that looked like me and talked like me. I felt at home here right away.

Wayne Duhaney: Swagg General

Jungle. It was all Jungle. When I use the term Jungle, it is not meant in a derogatory way- it’s just the name that people call Lawrence Heights. Bathurst Heights was our school. Right in the middle of where we lived. It was amazing. All of us from this neighbourhood went there. We made school the best. My first year at Bathurst Heights I got kicked out because of too much absence. Then the next year I went back I made the Honour Roll (laughs). I didn’t go all the way to the end though. I had a couple of brushes with the criminal justice system. I just got caught up. You know, young, neighbourhood, I got caught up. Mother was working, not consistent, she did her best to raise 3 kids. But you know, living in the neighbourhood, you see a lot of stuff that catch your eyes, you know, we wanted new stuff, the Walkman, other stuff. So got caught up and went away a couple of times. I got hit early and hard and I learned early and hard.

It definitely hit me hard. I was a 20 year old. You had to learn quick. It was a hard realization being away, leaving my Mom and my sisters in Lawrence Heights without no male. A lot of stuff happened while I was in there. Some of my friends died while I was in there. I couldn’t go to a funeral, I had no say in what was happening here. My younger sister had a child while I was in there. A lot of events happened that I couldn’t get back. People can tell you the story but at the end of the day you missed it. It’s not there.

February 1991. I was 23 at the time. I’ve moved around to different places but Jungle was always the base.

Wayne and Paul Watson

Things change, right?

Odd jobs. Chris Spence helped me out, he got me a job. At the time he was working for the Jamaican Canadian Association, they had an office in the Community Centre, where Helen’s office is. Chris Spence had that office then. It was before he was Principal at Lawrence Heights Middle School. He coached boy’s basketball and stuff like that. He had ties, he knew a guy who owned Affordable Used Office Furniture and he got me a job there. I did a lot of different stuff, I took some courses, tried to get back in school, try to get my life going, and stay off the radar.

There’s a teacher who coached basketball- Bob Mado, there was another teacher- Miss Hooper. They were a good influence. A lot of the older guys in the neighbourhood would give me advice. There was a man that died- Eric Grizzle, he was instrumental, he gave good advice. Another man that used to be here Jim Clark- he’s a Principal now but we grew up together and he would still give me good advice to this day. I used to hang with David Mitchell and his brothers.

Wayne and friends


Tell me about Paul Watson.

We were around the same age. In the course of life, you can’t put best friend on one person, but with my life, I had a lot of persons I would consider a best friend, but Paul was one of my best friends. I would say he was one of the first hood superstars in the whole City of Toronto. He’s a superstar. If you could put monetary value on fame he’d be a millionaire. He had the vibe, the charisma, fashion back in the day. Cool, cool, you know what I’m saying? Girls loved him. He was a great hockey player, a great basketball player. He’s that dude. You can’t go nowhere in Toronto and call his name and people didn’t know who he was. He was a major force in my life. Definitely. We were both iconic in what we started- in style and other stuff. Between 1985 to 1988 if you said Paul Watson, you’d say Wayne Duhaney and Elvis Lee. If you called one name, those 2 names would float right after. That’s how entrenched we were. That’s how we rolled. To this day, old school people see me and they say “I miss Paul”. Two peas in a pod, that’s how we were.

Foundation. I been here since 1979 and never faltered. I love the community and they know that. I’m Lawrence Heights. I show respect. At an early age, I had to learn that. As much as people were in the criminal justice system, that doesn’t mean they’re not good guys. A lot of guys passed on wisdom to me- curb your anger and stuff like that. To this day, I’ve been sharing my experiences with guys and give them advice. I’m respected in the City, my respect always comes back to Lawrence Heights. I love Lawrence Heights, people know that.

A lot of youth. Some call me and ask if I could stop certain things. A lot of youth comes to me for advice at times. Not always. When they do, I’ll give them advice. I don’t like people bullying people, so I’ll talk to them. A lot of people move out and never come back. Since working at the Community Centre and then Unison, I’ve been in Lawrence Heights.

Definitely the Centre. That was the place at any given time, that’s where the youth were. Cather Court- that was my first residence here. I have a lot of good memories from that time. In that court I learned to play marbles, football, I was an excellent BMX rider. I learned to fix bikes in that court, I found my passion for music, I started listening to WBLK. That court made me. What I learned from that court, I brought it over to when I met Paul and them on the other side.

It’s got a deep history. I could walk through Lawrence Heights and go to each court and tell you who used to live there. There’s a history, like Brown Man used to live here, Watson used to live here. The courts- Cather, Dorney, Bagot- David Mitchell lived in Bagot, Ben Johnson, the fastest man in Canadian history used to live right across from me in Cather. There’s a walking history here.

It ties back to Paul again.

I’ve been connected here since 2001. I did the harm reduction program after Paul died. I started here in October or November that year. The death of Paul really motivated me. He was working here with Paulos as a harm reduction worker. Paul brought Paulos to Cather Crescent and they talked to a bunch of us guys about condoms, HIV, that kind of stuff. When they left, everybody’s like ‘who’s that undercover guy with Paul?’ After Paul died, Paulos took a short term leave, it really hit him hard. It hit all the community really hard, it was one of the most tragic things to ever happen here. When he came back to work, he realized what a connection Paul was to the community. He was doing some amazing work. Paulos was asking who could replace him and my name kept coming up and coming up.

So one day he started talking to me and I said “if it’s something Paul was doing, I’ll continue that”. So I started volunteering here while I was doing other jobs in Lawrence Heights.

John Smith gave me my start in Lawrence Heights. That’s a funny story. The community used to always put on fashion shows at Bathurst Heights in the auditorium. They always wanted me to be a part of it. I said I’d join if my friend T 5 joined. This was around 1998- I’m up there in age now (laughs). So on Friday, at the fashion show a friend of mine and this other guy started arguing. So it carried on to Monday, they were at the Centre in the office and they were arguing still. I told them to just calm down. So one guy rushed this guy and then John Smith comes out. And he heard that D was the peacemaker. One day he was driving around and we talked about it so I started working in the weight room, then a couple shifts here and there. I was working as the Community Relations person there too. That’s why I have to give respect to Helen and John. Helen always had my back and I had her back. When the Community Relations thing was going a different way, she gave me a heads up.

When I started working at Unison in 2007 as a Harm Reduction Worker with Paulos, even though it only was a year contract, Helen told me to go ahead because it was better for my long term but she always said Unison stole me away from her (laughs)

Paulos taught me everything about harm reduction, he was definitely a strong mentor to me and very influential in my life. I respect him because he knows about community, he’s grass roots.

Where does your sense of style come from?

I definitely have a great mind for fashion. I like fashion and style. I’d say from 15 on, I owned it. I don’t follow every trend though. I wear what works for me. I take risks, I’m big, I wear certain colours that guys might not wear. Guys might say to me “only D could rock that colour”. I guess I just have the eye for what looks good. Like I say, I’ll take chances, but I won’t go too far overboard.

In the urban fabric of the City, Lawrence Heights, Jungle is instrumental to fashion, to lingo that you hear. A different way of talking. You can tell when someone’s from Jungle. Also in basketball and music. We have a lot of rappers from here. We’re known to this day. We’re the movers and shakers. We’re the Swagg Generals, you could say.

How would you say living in Lawrence Heights has contributed to making you the person you are today?

Without Lawrence Heights, I don’t know how I would be. When I was living in Don Mills, I was listening to KISS. I don’t put no race or borders on music. I can appreciate all kinds of music. I have a Carly Simon CD, Fleetwood Mac. Growing up in Lawrence Heights brought me to the roots, to be proud to be black. That grounded me. I seen a lot of racial injustice in my life. You know that song

Wayne and friends, photo: Taejon Cupid

I want one of them properties. The property values are high here. The subways here, Lawrence Manor on one side, the Italians on the other side. For years we been dancing in the middle. We just knew we were different. We went to the Italian neighbourhood to pick their plums and the other side to pick their pears. And what did we have in our neighbourhood? We had crab apples. So we’re in the middle, but we were never accepted. I want something I can hand down generationally to my family.

A lot of people are scared of revitalization but I want it. I crave it. I want to be one of the first to be in a Lawrence Heights house. I want my generation, my family to own a piece of the new community.