By Lincoln DePradine

Peter David, Grenada’s foreign affairs minister and a former Canadian resident who studied at Carlton University in Ottawa, will visit Toronto later this month at the invitation of past students of the Grenada Boys’ Secondary School (GBSSS).

David is also a graduate of GBSS that opened in February 1885 as the “St. George’s Grammar School’’, primarily to educate the sons of the British plantocracy and the colonial elite in Grenada.

The GBSS Alumni Association of Toronto has asked David, who also is his country’s labour minister, to be the keynote speaker at the group’s annual brunch and reunion. The event, a fundraiser to assist GBSS with school supplies, will be held on Sunday, May 26, at Sts. Peter and Paul Banquet Hall, 231 Milner Avenue in Scarborough.

“As the minister responsible for Diaspora Affairs, I understand the critical role that groups, such as the GBSS Alumni Association of Toronto, play in supporting development at the community and national levels in Grenada,’’ David told The Caribbean Camera in an interview.

“Over the past quarter-century, the Alumni Association of Toronto has done much in support of GBSS, my alma mater. I’m planning to offer them a couple of suggestions on additional areas of assistance that they can consider providing to the school.’’

David, who is a lawyer by profession and the MP for the Town of St George, is among an illustrious group of Grenadians and Caribbean nationals who have either studied or taught at GBSS.

Others include Grenada Olympic gold medalist Kirani James, former Prime Ministers Herbert Blaize and Nicholas Brathwaite, and Sir Alister McIntyre – the former Caricom Secretary General and ex-Vice Chancellor of the University of the West Indies. Sir Alister, 87, died April 20 in Jamaica.

The list of GBSS alumni also includes former Guyana President Desmond Hoyte and the late St Lucian author and Nobel Prize Laureate Sir Derek Walcott who taught at the school.

While in Canada, David is also expected to participate in some official meetings on behalf of the Grenada government.