Member-only story

There Is Always An Alternative

Remarks presented to York University’s Faculty of Liberal Arts and Professional Studies Graduating Class of 2023.

7 min readJun 24, 2023

Selfie in graduation robes taken with the graduating class behind me in bleachers.

Author’s note: On June 20, 2023, York University’s Faculty of Liberal Arts and Professional Studies awarded me an Honourary Doctor of Laws. I was privileged to present the convocation remarks to the graduating class. This is a transcript of my remarks.

Goodness me, it is a gigantic honour to be here today, and to be recognized in this way. I’m profoundly grateful to the faculty and administration here at York, and to my friends and family in the audience, especially my parents, who put up with a lot — as you’ll shortly hear.

I want to tell you a funny story about York.

When I was 21, I visited this campus to inquire about enrolling in an interdisciplinary humanities program. I’d had a weird education, taking seven years to graduate from a four-year high school, SEED school, Toronto’s great, original alternative school. I was accustomed to designing my own curriculum…

Cory, thanks so very much for this. Of all the magnificent writing you’ve done, and it is Legion, this is my favorite. I really needed it. We ALL really need it. And most certainly the graduating class and York really need it.

It’s exceedingly corny…

I see this all the time with my work. People are passengers in the bus called western democracy. They cannot imagine getting on a different bus. They cannot imagine a different kind of democracy, let alone investigating that democracy.

----------

To…