Lu Fan packed up her life in China, moved across the ocean and restarted her career in Halifax, after more than a decade working as a documentary filmmaker.
Her husband got a job in Halifax and one year later, Fan and her two young children, aged seven and 10, followed. Fan worked as an English-speaking journalist at the China Global Television Network for 14 years, but she was ready for a change.
“I wasn’t very satisfied with my life over there in the final years of my career,” says Fan. “I really wanted to make a change.”
She wanted to explore how a democratic society works and felt that gaining a formal education in journalism within a democratic country would be a good way to start. She started in the Master of Journalism (MJ) program at King’s in late 2024.
In October, Fan was awarded the Sachedina-CTV News Fellowship—and the $10,000 that accompanies it. The fellowship was created by Omar Sachedina, Chief News Anchor and Senior Editor of CTV National News, to produce a “substantial and original piece of journalism” that could be published on a CTV News platform.
Lu examined the economic impact of mining critical minerals in Canada. The story was the capstone professional project that she completed as part of her MJ. The professional project is a 5,000-word magazine story that MJ students pitch, research and write over the final nine months of their studies. Sachedina called Fan personally to congratulate her when she received the fellowship.
“I was very surprised that he called me,” says Fan. “I didn’t expect that he could be so involved in the project.”
She had often seen Canadian stories on critical minerals, especially with the federal government’s expansion of mining and development infrastructure across the country since 2022. In a 2025 press release, Sachedina said Fan’s reporting on the topic “will challenge and enrich our understanding of the country.”
The impact on Canadians from mining critical minerals is a key part of Fan’s research.
CTV provided her with the resources to leave Halifax to report on the story. She travelled to a small town in Quebec, near one of the proposed excavation sites, to interview residents. She also attended a geology conference in Toronto and was able to connect in person with mining professionals.
“I didn’t expect this experience because not only [do] I have the money but also I have great support from Omar and also from my academic advisor [Barbara Sherwood Lollar].”
The scholarship means that Fan is a fellow at the University of Toronto’s Massey College and she has the mentorship of Lollar, a Canadian geologist at U of T.
Fan says she deeply appreciates the support from Sachedina, Lollar and the journalism instructors at King’s, especially Lisa Taylor, David Swick and Fred Vallance-Jones.
“I [feel] proud of myself, first of all,” says Fan. “I also want to say if it were not for my professors here, I would not [have] the scholarship. It’s not only me. It’s everybody’s support. I say this from the bottom of my heart.”
Even with all the input from different journalism professionals, Fan says she still has a lot of freedom to make this project exactly how she envisions it. She says that creative freedom means a lot to her and that this experience has brought her closer to an understanding of Canadian journalism.
Fan is aiming to publish the mining article online with CTV this May.
