Azim Essaji (he/him)
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aessaji.bsky.social
Azim Essaji (he/him)
@aessaji.bsky.social
720 followers 900 following 530 posts
Associate Professor, Economics
Wilfrid Laurier University
Views expressed are not of my employer; sometimes, they're not even my own
Posts Replies Media Videos
aessaji.bsky.social
Holy fucking shit: #cdnpolitics #canadasky

www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...
‘The Nazis were right': What the leaders of Canada’s biggest ‘nationalist’ group really want | CBC Accessibility
In official posts, Second Sons Canada calls itself a “men’s nationalist club” and promotes a nostalgic vision of Canada. But on personal podcasts and livestreams, its leaders consistently espouse anti...
www.cbc.ca
December 20, 2025 at 5:50 PM
aessaji.bsky.social
1. I had no idea that Francis Fukuyama was still alive.
2. It's hard to imagine how somebody who was so spectacularly wrong once would ever publicly venture an opinion again, but yet here we are.
michaelhobbes.bsky.social Michael Hobbes @michaelhobbes.bsky.social · 4d
If we are banning cell phones for kids we need to be talking about banning chatbots for boomers
www.persuasion.community/p/my-chatgpt...
December 17, 2025 at 5:11 PM
aessaji.bsky.social
Looks like this might be fake. I thought the Alberta School Councils was an umbrella organization for school boards. It isn't. Sorry. Thanks to @lindsaytedds.bsky.social and @jaredwesley.ca for letting me know.
aessaji.bsky.social Azim Essaji (he/him) @aessaji.bsky.social · 4d
This is the letter that the Alberta Minister of Education sent to parents across the province. In 2025. In Canada.
December 17, 2025 at 3:51 PM
aessaji.bsky.social
This is the letter that the Alberta Minister of Education sent to parents across the province. In 2025. In Canada.
December 17, 2025 at 3:22 PM
Reposted by Azim Essaji (he/him)
philsmith26.bsky.social
On Dec. 12, Statistics Canada released a preliminary estimate of the national poverty rate in 2024. It was 10.9%, the same as in 2023. The Canada Child Benefit introduced by Parliament in 2016 brought the rate down considerably. The pandemic and weak growth thereafter brought it back up. #cdnecon
December 16, 2025 at 3:20 AM
Reposted by Azim Essaji (he/him)
anitaoakvilleeast.bsky.social
Tonight marks the beginning of Hanukkah, a time for light and celebration. This celebration also reminds us of the enduring resilience of the Jewish people, particularly in the face antisemitism.
December 15, 2025 at 12:02 AM
Reposted by Azim Essaji (he/him)
adamjschwarz.bsky.social
Ahmed al Ahmed, a Lebanese Muslim who owns a Sydney fruit shop, risked his life to disarm one of the Bondi Beach shooters.

His courage gives me hope amidst the horror and darkness. Muslims and Jews are not enemies. Our futures, in the Middle East and beyond, are intrinsically bound.

A true hero.
December 14, 2025 at 1:41 PM
aessaji.bsky.social
This. So much this.
emmettmacfarlane.com Emmett Macfarlane 🇨🇦 @emmettmacfarlane.com · 9d
The thing about collegial governance at a university is that it takes collegiality. By this I don't mean *congeniality* (being nice) but a shared sense of responsibility and dedication.
December 13, 2025 at 1:58 AM
Reposted by Azim Essaji (he/him)
rachelgilmore.bsky.social
Oh my GOD.

This is the Shopify broligarch-involved pet project to influence Canadian policy.

Build Canada told journalist Taylor Noakes that Carney's office "has reached out to Build Canada on occasion to ask about our memos."
www.desmog.com/2025/12/08/m...
Mark Carney Took Speech Ideas From Billionaire-Founded ‘Build Canada’
The pro-AI and fossil fuel group tells DeSmog that it’s great to see its ideas “get taken up by government.”
www.desmog.com
December 12, 2025 at 7:04 PM
aessaji.bsky.social
Ontario is one of the most highly educated jurisdictions in the world, yet it is run by this venal kakistocracy that will strip it of culture and learning. #onpolitics #canadasky
alexbozikovic.bsky.social Alex Bozikovic @alexbozikovic.bsky.social · 11d
News today about the Ontario Science Centre: Its "temporary location" will take over most, or possibly all, of Harbourfront Centre.

86,000 square feet is a larger fraction, if not all, of Harbourfront's buildings.

news.ontario.ca/en/release/1...
Ontario Newsroom
news.ontario.ca
December 12, 2025 at 4:21 AM
Reposted by Azim Essaji (he/him)
journodale.bsky.social
It's practically satire with this guy.
Ottawa using AI to review public comments on its national AI strategy
OTTAWA - The federal government is using artificial intelligence to sort through public input on AI policy, Artificial Intelligence Minister Evan Solomon said Thursday.
www.thecanadianpressnews.ca
December 12, 2025 at 3:49 AM
aessaji.bsky.social
Dutch academics take a stand against the uncritical use of AI in universities: openletter.earth/open-letter-...
Open Letter: Stop the Uncritical Adoption of AI Technologies in Academia
openletter.earth
December 9, 2025 at 11:26 PM
Reposted by Azim Essaji (he/him)
andrew.heiss.phd
Some closing thoughts for my students this semester on LLMs and learning #rstats datavizf25.classes.andrewheiss.com/news/2025-12...
Will you incorporate LLMs and AI prompting into the course in the future? No. Why won’t you incorporate LLMs and AI prompting into the course? These tools are useful for coding (see this for my personal take on this). However, they’re only useful if you know what you’re doing first. If you skip the learning-the-process-of-writing-code step and just copy/paste output from ChatGPT, you will not learn. You cannot learn. You cannot improve. You will not understand the code. In that post, it warns that you cannot use it as a beginner: …to use Databot effectively and safely, you still need the skills of a data scientist: background and domain knowledge, data analysis expertise, and coding ability. There is no LLM-based shortcut to those skills. You cannot LLM your way into domain knowledge, data analysis expertise, or coding ability. The only way to gain domain knowledge, data analysis expertise, and coding ability is to struggle. To get errors. To google those errors. To look over the documentation. To copy/paste your own code and adapt it for different purposes. To explore messy datasets. To struggle to clean those datasets. To spend an hour looking for a missing comma. This isn’t a form of programming hazing, like “I had to walk to school uphill both ways in the snow and now you must too.” It’s the actual process of learning and growing and developing and improving. You’ve gotta struggle. This Tumblr post puts it well (it’s about art specifically, but it applies to coding and data analysis too): Contrary to popular belief the biggest beginner’s roadblock to art isn’t even technical skill it’s frustration tolerance, especially in the age of social media. It hurts and the frustration is endless but you must build the frustration tolerance equivalent to a roach’s capacity to survive a nuclear explosion. That’s how you build on the technical skill. Throw that “won’t even start because I’m afraid it won’t be perfect” shit out the window. Just do it. Just start. Good luck. (The original post has disappeared, but here’s a reblog.) It’s hard, but struggling is the only way to learn anything. You might not enjoy code as much as Williams does (or I do), but there’s still value in maintaining codings skills as you improve and learn more. You don’t want your skills to atrophy. As I discuss here, when I do use LLMs for coding-related tasks, I purposely throw as much friction into the process as possible: To avoid falling into over-reliance on LLM-assisted code help, I add as much friction into my workflow as possible. I only use GitHub Copilot and Claude in the browser, not through the chat sidebar in Positron or Visual Studio Code. I treat the code it generates like random answers from StackOverflow or blog posts and generally rewrite it completely. I disable the inline LLM-based auto complete in text editors. For routine tasks like generating {roxygen2} documentation scaffolding for functions, I use the {chores} package, which requires a bunch of pointing and clicking to use. Even though I use Positron, I purposely do not use either Positron Assistant or Databot. I have them disabled. So in the end, for pedagogical reasons, I don’t foresee me incorporating LLMs into this class. I’m pedagogically opposed to it. I’m facing all sorts of external pressure to do it, but I’m resisting. You’ve got to learn first.
December 9, 2025 at 8:17 PM
aessaji.bsky.social
LOL. A couple of my students' essays definitely read like the AI characters speak.

youtu.be/ua4rYsMdC4U?...
AI Software - SNL
YouTube video by Saturday Night Live
youtu.be
December 9, 2025 at 10:25 PM
aessaji.bsky.social
Wordle 1,632 2/6

⬜🟩⬜🟩🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
December 7, 2025 at 5:14 PM
aessaji.bsky.social
Two years ago, I would have dismissed this piece as naive, self-serving and economic nonsense. Now, I am not so sure: www.thestar.com/opinion/cont... #canadasky #econsky
Paradoxically, the Algoma Steel layoffs are both a tragedy and a huge opportunity for Canada
Reinvesting in Canadian industry will do more than just combat tariff pain.
www.thestar.com
December 4, 2025 at 6:00 PM
aessaji.bsky.social
The piece on CBC's The Current this morning, on young people returning to religion was just unbelievably bad. Almost all the people interviewed were young people who "found Jesus"; the one academic was from a private Christian university. 1/ #cdnpolitics #canadasky
December 2, 2025 at 9:17 PM
aessaji.bsky.social
Heart-wrenching. Who would do this to a child? www.thestar.com/news/canada/...
‘Hope he gets an infection’: Prospective moms called boy ‘loser’ in texts years before his death, Ontario murder trial hears
Becky Hamber and Brandy Cooney’s murder trial began hearing mountains of evidence from their seized phones on Monday, including disjointed text conversations referring to the boy they were seeking to
www.thestar.com
December 2, 2025 at 9:10 PM
aessaji.bsky.social
A cautionary tale for those who want AI to become part of the Canadian DNA, like hockey and maple syrup #econsky

time.com/7295195/ai-c...
ChatGPT's Impact On Our Brains According to an MIT Study
The study, from MIT Lab scholars, measured the brain activity of subjects writing SAT essays with and without ChatGPT.
time.com
December 1, 2025 at 4:39 PM
aessaji.bsky.social
How many more of these papers are we going to endure as AI gets hyped up by **everyone** and draws in the worst academics in every field? 1/ #econsky statmodeling.stat.columbia.edu/2025/05/19/i...
If only Arxiv required researchers to sign at the top rather than the bottom of the page, none of this would’ve happened. | Statistical Modeling, Causal Inference, and Social Science
statmodeling.stat.columbia.edu
December 1, 2025 at 4:30 PM
Reposted by Azim Essaji (he/him)
shastingssimon.bsky.social
Another night to sleep on this and I'm solidifying this take

There is a reason industry/govt sees a bit win in trading the regulations that would have forced real emissions reductions (oil and gas cap and CER) for vauge future carbon pricing promises that some are claiming will achieve the same 1/
shastingssimon.bsky.social Sara Hastings-Simon 🇨🇦 @shastingssimon.bsky.social · 23d
After some time for reflection I think this is one of the biggest open questions that has a big impact on how much climate action we will see in Canada -
unless I'm reading this wrong (?) it doesn't say the carbon floor will be $130 by April. It says there will be an agreement by April 1/
shastingssimon.bsky.social Sara Hastings-Simon 🇨🇦 @shastingssimon.bsky.social · 24d
Where does it say $130 in April? it says they will by April agree on what the timeline and price increases are.
I would bet a very large sum of money it will not be $130 effective price in April.
November 28, 2025 at 4:17 PM
Reposted by Azim Essaji (he/him)
phdhurtbrain.bsky.social
I had an interesting set of interactions w AI-generated content that I think is instructive. A very bright student made a claim in an essay that struck me as outlandish, so I searched the question on Google which turned up that phrasing the search a certain way makes the AI summary agree w the claim
November 28, 2025 at 2:18 PM
Reposted by Azim Essaji (he/him)
rachelgilmore.bsky.social
Trudeau-era environment minister Steven Guilbeault has published a resignation letter detailing the reasons for his departure from Carney's cabinet.

He directly cites today's MOU:
Statement by Steven Guilbeault This afternoon, it is with great sadness that I submitted my resignation to the Prime Minister as Minister of Canadian Identity and Culture and Minister responsible for Official Languages, Minister of Nature and Parks Canada, as well as his Lieutenant in Quebec. As you know, I chose to enter politics to champion the fight against climate change and the protection of the environment. Over the past ten years, our country has made historic progress in reducing climate pollution, protecting nature and the environment, while our economy continued to grow. I believe I have contributed to these advancements, and I remain deeply proud of the achievements I have helped bring forward: • Standing up to tech giants and major polluters • Implementing Canada's first emissions reduction plan, slowing their growth and placing them on a downward trajectory • Establishing the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation • Modernizing the Canadian Environmental Protection Act • Developing the country's first national climate adaptation strategy to protect our communities • Eliminating harmful single-use plastics • Implementing the most ambitious nature conservation plan in the country's history • Continuing the modernization of the Official Languages Act • Making historic investments in arts and culture, including during the COVID-19 crisis and in the most recent budget Changes in our relationship with the United States have led to profound disruptions affecting the global order, diplomatic relations, and the economy. I understand and share the Prime Minister's efforts to ensure our country First, there was no consultation with the Indigenous nations of the West Coast of British Columbia or with the provincial government, who would be greatly affected by this agreement. Furthermore, a pipeline to the West Coast would have major environmental impacts, particularly as it could cross the Great Bear Rainforest, contribute to a significant increase in climate pollution, and move Canada further away from its greenhouse gas reduction targets. Lifting the tanker ban on the West Coast would also significantly increase the risk of accidents in the region. This moratorium was established in 1972 following a unanimous vote in the House of Commons, notably because navigation in the Hecate Strait is highly dangerous. Its removal would also hinder the creation of a marine conservation area in the Great Bear Sea, a project our government has been actively developing with Indigenous partners and the government of British Columbia for several years, protecting more than 100,000 km of this ecologically sensitive region. We cannot hope to decarbonize our economy without decarbonizing the electricity sector. The proposal to exempt Alberta from the Clean Electricity Regulations in exchange for stricter industrial carbon pricing rules and the Pathways project is, in my view, a serious mistake. As shown in the analysis submitted to the House of Commons, without this regulation, the electricity sector-which has halved its pollution over the past 20 years-would return to an upward emissions trajectory. This regulation also saves lives by reducing air pollution, generates over $3 billion in healthcare savings, and ultimately reduces greenhouse gas emissions by 182 million tonnes. Finally, over the past few months, several elements of the climate action plan I worked on as Minister of the Environment have been, or are about to be, dismantled: the consumer carbon pricing, the Zero Emission Vehicle standard, the oil and gas sector emissions cap, the framework to eliminate fossil fuel subsidies, and the Clean Electricity Regulations. In my view, these measures remain essential to our climate action plan. I want to express my sincere gratitude to the citizens of Laurier-Sainte-Marie for the trust they have placed in me since 2019. I will continue to represent them as their Liberal Member of Parliament with dedication. I also thank the Prime Minister for the honor of serving in his cabinet and as his lieutenant in Quebec. When I entered politics, it was because I had a deep conviction that I could make a difference in fighting climate change and protecting our environment. My commitment to leaving a better world for the future of our children and our planet remains unchanged. Steven Guilbeault Member of Parliament for Laurier-Sainte-Marie
November 27, 2025 at 9:55 PM
Reposted by Azim Essaji (he/him)
catelli.bsky.social
"The carbon capture and disposal industry is a scam and is causing harm when it comes to climate solutions."

And Mark Carney thinks it's the future. Along with AI.

heimildin.is/grein/24581/
Climeworks’ capture fails to cover its own emissions
The carbon capture company Climeworks only captures a fraction of the CO2 it promises its machines can capture. The company is failing to carbon offset the emissions resulting from its operations – wh...
heimildin.is
November 27, 2025 at 8:20 PM
aessaji.bsky.social
And I've just cancelled my membership, too.
catelli.bsky.social Catelli @catelli.bsky.social · 24d
I just did the same. From Ontario.
reformedreformer.bsky.social Reformed Reformer and Part Owner of Canada 🇨🇦🇺🇦🇬🇱🇵🇦🏳️‍🌈 @reformedreformer.bsky.social · 24d
Just wrote to cancel my Liberal Party membership, and I encourage all British Columbians and anyone who cares about Mother Earth to do the same.

Nothing but a wolf in sheep’s clothing.
November 27, 2025 at 9:52 PM