Sebastian Johnston-Lindsay
Sebastian Johnston-Lindsay is a reporter at The Peterborough Examiner whose work follows how public institutions, especially colleges and universities, turn government decisions into concrete changes on the ground. His coverage brings together education, municipal policy and community services, with a consistent focus on funding, governance and the people affected. In addition to his current reporting, he has built a track record on city hall, university boards and local arts and culture that informs how he approaches stories about post-secondary education and public policy.
Fleming College and post-secondary funding
Education reporting is anchored in his coverage of post-secondary institutions, including a detailed story on Fleming College receiving $56.2 million in additional provincial funding.
That piece treats the funding amount itself as central, framing the decision as a major provincial commitment to the college and its programs. His broader background includes sustained reporting on Trent University’s Board of Governors, where he has covered governance decisions and their impact on students and faculty, signaling a consistent interest in how institutional leadership and budgets shape the post-secondary landscape. He brings that governance lens to his education beat, writing about colleges and universities in the context of how they are financed, overseen and integrated into wider policy debates.
Street Medicine team and community health services
Johnston-Lindsay extends his funding-focused reporting into community health services through coverage of the Peterborough Street Medicine team. In a Local Journalism Initiative piece reprinted on Peterborough Currents, he reports on the province’s decision to support the Street Medicine team with more than $1 million a year over three years, treating the announcement as both a health policy story and a community service milestone. The article concentrates on the scale of the funding, the multi-year structure of the commitment and what it means for people receiving care from the team.
This work shows the same pattern as his education stories: clear numbers, institutional context and attention to the practical consequences of policy decisions for local residents.
Airport committee and local economic development
His reporting at The Peterborough Examiner also covers local infrastructure and economic development through municipal committees. In a piece published in Wings Magazine under a Local Journalism Initiative byline, he reports on business leads for the Peterborough Airport following a trip to a British air show.
The story tracks the work of the Airport Strategic Initiatives Advisory Committee and local economic development staff as they pursue investment and business attraction for the airport. He focuses on the steps taken by officials, the kinds of opportunities being pursued and how those efforts fit into broader economic development strategies, using committee meetings and official briefings as primary narrative drivers.
This municipal and infrastructure reporting complements his education beat by showing how transportation assets, economic planning and institutional expansion are linked in local policy.
Public safety, courts and political events
Alongside education and infrastructure, Johnston-Lindsay reports on public safety and the justice system, often through concrete developments in local cases and policing tools. A snippet of his work highlighted on media databases shows him covering the launch of an app that will allow the Peterborough Police Service to monitor high-risk offenders out on bail across Ontario, treating technology and accountability as key angles.
He has also been credited with reporting on sexual assault charges against former priest Neil Pereira, working through the court process and its implications for the community. On the political side, his bylines include coverage of a rally by Liberal leader Mark Carney in Peterborough, situating local events within wider party and leadership campaigns. These stories underscore his willingness to move between education, safety and politics while keeping the focus on specific decisions, tools and events rather than opinion or commentary.
City hall, budgets and university governance
Before joining The Peterborough Examiner, Johnston-Lindsay developed a strong municipal and campus governance portfolio that now shapes his reporting style. At Arthur, Trent University’s independent student newspaper, he served as Coordinating Editor and later Editor-in-Chief, where he mainly covered City Hall and Trent University’s Board of Governors.
His work there included features on local music, arts and culture as well as institutional stories, and he was part of an editorial team that won the 2024 John H. McDonald Award for Best Online Media Presence.
He was also recognized as a finalist for the 2023 Student Award of Excellence from the Canadian Association of Journalists for a feature on the Peterborough Museum and Archives exhibit “To Honour and Respect.”
In November 2023, he co-produced a podcast series with Peterborough Currents that reported on major developments during the 2024 city budget process, tracing how councillors debated tax increases and spending priorities. This combination of city hall, budget and governance reporting feeds directly into his current coverage of education, funding and local policy, giving him a practiced eye for how board decisions, committee recommendations and budget lines translate into real-world outcomes.
Arts, culture and freelance reporting
In parallel with his hard-news work, Johnston-Lindsay has built a portfolio in arts and culture journalism that adds range to his coverage. As a freelance writer, he has contributed to kawarthaNOW, where his articles have focused on local arts, culture and provincial politics affecting the Kawartha region.
His work has also appeared in the Canadian music publication DOMINIONATED, where he has written reviews, interviews and features, including coverage of the 2022 Polaris Music Prize.
Beyond print, he has produced and hosted radio programs on Trent Radio, such as a weekly show on Canadian cover songs and the NOISEHOLE program, and has been involved in podcasting about municipal budgets and local issues. This arts and culture experience informs his education and public policy reporting by keeping attention on how institutions intersect with cultural life, community identity and local creative scenes.
4 more education journalists.
Abby Russchen
Abby Russchen ties education, community institutions and individual stories together, showing how policies and decisions register in people’s lives. She reports for CBC on education and community life, working across text, video and photography for different CBC platforms. Her education coverage centres student achievement, provincial and national test results, classroom technology and the forces shaping learning conditions, connecting policy language and expert analysis to observable changes in performance. She treats AI, screens and digital tools as part of the education beat, focusing on their impact on student well-being. She also reports on community institutions and local services, from bank closures and changing city status to small-business growth. Her human-interest features follow people, public memory and recognition, and her long-form background supports detailed, fact-grounded narratives across formats.
Alexa Phillips
Alexa Phillips reports on education as a financial system, tracing who pays, who benefits and who bears the risk when policy changes reshape schools and universities. She covers education policy, funding and regulation for The i Paper, with a consistent focus on money, power and their impact on students and staff. Her reporting follows fees, budgets and reform into classrooms and lecture halls, using concrete figures to show how tax changes, funding mechanisms and loan reforms translate into course cuts, job losses and access. Phillips brings wider experience on public services and regulation, including work on gambling oversight and healthcare access, so education sits in a larger accountability story. She writes straightforward, reported news pieces that combine policy detail, financial data and case studies, built from official records and regular call‑outs to readers affected by the systems she covers.
Alexandra Holyk
Alexandra Holyk is a multi-skilled journalist at CTV News who reports on education and youth issues through the daily lives of students, families, and local communities. She covers school and campus decisions, student safety, youth behaviour, and neighbourhood incidents, with a focus on how they affect the people directly involved. Her work includes stories on graduation choices, concerns about Black students in a school board, federal research funding at the University of Waterloo, and students who helped after a cyclist collision. She also covers vandalism and other local disruptions around schools and neighbourhoods. Holyk pitches, researches, shoots, writes, edits, and presents stories for broadcast and digital platforms. Her previous work includes video journalism for provincial coverage, along with reporting for campus and regional outlets and major Canadian newspapers and business media.
Annabelle Olivier
Annabelle Olivier ties system-level themes in Quebec’s school system to the immediate realities of parents and students, treating education as a lived experience rather than an abstract policy field. She is a digital journalist with CBC News, covering education and related public policy. Her work spans data breaches and digital privacy in schools, institutional conflicts and labour disputes that disrupt study plans, education on the campaign trail, and school infrastructure and land use. She reports on incidents like mass emails exposing sensitive parent data, suspended classes that leave students feeling like bargaining chips, and proposals to turn racetracks into schools. Her background in digital production at another major Canadian broadcaster shapes an online-first reporting style, grounded in specific incidents, clear descriptions, and detailed, verifiable facts drawn from documents, statements and interviews.