Despite difficult early years in Jamaica and England, Paulene Harvey found the strength to build a new life in Canada, becoming a successful entrepreneur, prolific volunteer, and celebrated activist.
“He was incredibly tough,” says Terry Swinton, his partner of 35 years. “She really beat the odds.”
Born Bevolyn Jean McLean in Smithville, Jamaica, the son of John McLean, a farmer, and Frederica, a homemaker, Harvey had four siblings: Nevel, Hopeton, John, and Frederic.
His early family life was a struggle. “Where they came from in Jamaica,” Swinton says, “there was no jobs, no industry, no infrastructure, and no opportunity for education; in short, the legacy of colonialism ”.
One bright spot for Harvey, who had an extraordinarily beautiful voice, was performing at church and social events with his mother and brother John, who became a musician.
In the late 1950s, Harvey’s parents immigrated to London, England, in search of a better life for their family. By the time Harvey joined them a few years later, they had become strangers to her. The now six-year-old, the only black student in her classes, struggled at school. “They left her adrift, harassed, intimidated and beat her, and sent her to nonacademic courses,” Swinton says.
Harvey dropped out of school in his mid-teens and, as soon as he could, joined the British Navy to train as a nurse. Her desire to help others made her a natural caregiver, Swinton says. But something was missing.
In 1981, the 27-year-old decided to emigrate to Canada using the only route open to her: as a nanny. Although she never officially worked as a nurse in Canada, she used her skills in her new career and is credited with saving a baby’s life.
In Toronto, he met people who would become lifelong friends, including Swinton and his roommate, Sam Chaiton. As activists, this group, known as Los Canadienses, played a key role in helping free American boxer Rubin “Hurricane” Carter from wrongful imprisonment for a triple murder in New Jersey. Carter, celebrated with the Bob Dylan song “Hurricane,” had spent nearly 20 years in prison.
Although Carter’s sentence was overturned in 1985 after a Federal District Court ruled that his conviction was based on racism and cover-up, the state of New Jersey appealed his release to the United States Supreme Court. Carter was not allowed to leave the United States, so the Canadians lived in New York while they worked on the appeal.
It was in 1987 that Harvey and Swinton went from being close friends to partners, and in February 1988 the original accusation was finally dismissed. The Canadians then returned to Canada, bringing Carter with them.
In 1996, Harvey, Swinton, Chaiton, and others, including Harvey’s cousin Dameion Royes, founded the successful Toronto-based retail chain Big It Up Hats. At the height of its 23 years in the business, Big It Up, which counted supermodel Naomi Campbell and rappers Wyclef Jean and Kardinal Offishall among its clients, had 10 stores in Toronto and Edmonton.
As an entrepreneur, Harvey was personable and relatable. “People just knew when they met it that it was authentic,” Swinton says. “She was so naturally herself the whole time. … Paulene was like hats. She was funky and modern. “
Harvey also had an instinct to identify a need and then satisfy it, Swinton says. In 2005, he co-founded Shoot with This, a mentoring program for at-risk youth living in the Jane-Finch neighborhood.
After being diagnosed with leukemia in 2011, Harvey co-created a popular head scarf tying program in the Princess Margaret Hospital Wig Room. “She encountered a lot of women who had lost their hair, and for them, it was a delicate thing,” says Swinton.
For Gilda’s Club Toronto, a cancer support organization named after the late comedian Gilda Radner, Harvey founded Youth in Time, a film program to help young people battling cancer record their personal stories. “Even if everything is going great, being a teenager is tough,” Swinton says. “But if you have cancer, or your mother or father has it, it is really traumatic. The program helped many. ”
Harvey also volunteered with the Toronto-based community outreach agency, the Islamic Social Services and Resources Association (ISSRA), and established a community garden for his clients, which included refugees, immigrants, and new Canadians. Talented gardeners, Harvey and Swinton grew flowers and vegetables in the backyard of the Swansea home that they shared with Chaiton and his partner, Lindy Green, until Harvey’s death.
“He had an amazing green thumb,” says Swinton. “She could only look at a seed and it would sprout.”
Reference-www.thestar.com