Aaron Derfel is the
Montreal Gazette's medical reporter, specializing in investigative and narrative journalism in a more than 30-year career that has taken him across North America. He is a three-time finalist of the National Newspaper Awards, and in 2021 he won a
Canadian Association of Journalists Award for his reporting on the
COVID-19 pandemic in Quebec.
In 2018, Mr. Derfel garnered a National Newspaper Award citation of merit in the investigations category for a
four-part series exposing how budget cuts caused a spike in violence against staff and patients at the Montreal General Hospital. The series resulted in major security improvements. In 2009, Mr. Derfel was honored with the Media Award for Health Reporting by the Canadian Medical and Nurses' Associations for an in-depth feature on the over-prescription of anti-depressants.
A graduate of the Journalism Program at Concordia,
Mr. Derfel has taught at the university since 2001, focusing on access-to-information requests, court records and financial reporting, among other subjects. His non-fiction narrative of the trauma response to the 2006 Dawson College mass shooting was selected for the book,
The Bigger Picture: Elements of Feature Writing.
Courses taught
JOUR 302 — Research Methods for Journalism
JOUR 206 — Introduction to Reporting
JOUR 208 — Intermediate Reporting
JOUR 303 — Feature Writing
JOUR 215 — Contemporary News Media
JOUR 210 — The Media in Quebec
JOUR 502 — Introduction to the Print Process
JOUR 501 and 604 — Research Methods for Journalism (diploma and Master's students)
The Bigger Picture: Elements of Feature Writing
(Emond Montgomery Press, 2008)
Contributed a 2006 feature story to the book.

Traitements-Chocs et Tartelettes: Bilan critique de la gestion de la COVID-19 au Québec
(Éditeur: Somme toute, 2022)
Contributed to one of the essays in the book.