Julia-Simone Rutgers

Reporter

Julia-Simone Rutgers is an investigative reporter who joined the Free Press in 2020.

After earning a journalism degree from the University of King’s College in Halifax, she joined the paper as a daily news reporter before pivoting to the environment beat in 2022.

She’s written deep-dive features on a wide range of topics — from municipal sewage and transit infrastructure, to housing and policing policy, to the complex conversations around mining and energy developments.

She’s a dogged researcher with a knack for digging up stories hidden in plain sight and the drive to break down the layers and nuances of issues facing her community.

Since completing the LEDE program certification of computational competency through Columbia University’s graduate school of journalism in 2025, Rutgers has focused on incorporating unique data-driven analysis and visuals into her work.

Prior to joining the investigative team, she was the Free Press and The Narwhal’s first Manitoba environment reporter. In that role, she was the recipient of the 2023 Hon. Edward Goff Penny Memorial Prize for Young Canadian Journalists, a finalist in the 2022 National Newspaper Award’s Special Topic: Indigenous Issues-Climate Change category, and a finalist of several Canadian Association of Journalists awards, Digital Publishing Awards and Society of Environmental Journalists awards.

She was The Walrus’s first writer-in-residence in 2022, and has bylines in the Star Metro Halifax, The Coast, The Discourse and The Globe and Mail.