Luke LeBrun

I am the Editor of PressProgress, a Canadian non-profit news organization that focuses on investigative and explanatory journalism. My reporting has a special focus on federal politics, right-wing media and far-right extremism.

I’ve broken big stories that made national and international headlines, held rich and powerful people accountable and created democratic change. In 2024, I received the Canadian Journalists for Free Expression’s Arnold Amber Award for Investigative Journalism. I also occasionally appear on TV / radio and write about Canadian politics for the Toronto Star.

How has your Carleton English degree informed your professional and/or creative path?

The real value of an English degree is that it teaches you how to think critically about language and synthesize new information. The ability to think critically about the information you are consuming and sending back out to the world is so important if you want to be a writer, a communicator or, in my case, an investigative journalist.

I also valued Carleton’s interdisciplinary approach and the opportunity to research issues at the intersection of technology and culture at the Hypertext and Hypermedia Lab. The Lab provided me with the tools to navigate online spaces and approach these issues with a critical eye. This has proven to be very useful for my investigative journalism into the intersections of politics and new technologies.

Why Carleton?  What specific experiences or opportunities did you benefit from while studying English at Carleton?

In retrospect, one of the things I appreciate the most about studying at Carleton was how accessible and down-to-earth the professors, instructors and teaching assistants were.

Real learning requires back-and-forth communication. You don’t get the same learning experience sitting in giant lecture halls with five hundred other students as you do in smaller classes or talking one-on-one with professors during office hours. Carleton’s English department and its faculty created good learning environments and were always generous with their time.