They're notable and quotable: Triumphs, tragedies and other stories that got people talking
From dramatic rescues to heartbreaking losses to the cost of living, and far beyond
A rescue at sea that felt like a miracle. A series of wildfires in Labrador that threatened the power-generating town of Churchill Falls in the summer. Then, in December, a political deal on that very same place, which the premier hopes will rewrite Newfoundland and Labrador's history.
CBC journalists conducted countless interviews through 2024, on all manner of topics.
We went through our archive and pulled out some quotes from the people who made the news, who witnessed events, whose insight still brings colour, perspective and humanity to what we all talk about.
Dig in as we go through a hectic 12 months, all of it captured in quotation marks.
"Within five minutes, we had seven men aboard a life-raft and there was fire around us everywhere." — Eugene Carter, captain of the Elite Navigator, soon after being brought ashore to Valleyfield in a dramatic rescue after three harrowing days at sea. The crew quickly became known as the "Lucky 7."
"One day you have a job and a home and a place for your family to be safe. And then you're driving away from it, not knowing where you're going." — Churchill Falls resident Susan Chislett, who was evacuated twice during raging wildfires that struck the town and other parts of Labrador this summer.
"Health care needs nurses more than nurses need to work here." — Licensed practical nurse Stacey Button, who quit her job in Springdale to work as a travel LPN. Travel nurses were one of the controversial areas of health care this year.
"Like the saying goes, the meaning of life is that it ends. The meaning of love is that it doesn't." — Broadcaster Ron MacLean, remembering Bob Cole on the day of Cole's funeral in May.
"Today, everything changes for Newfoundland and Labrador. We are ripping up the 1969 contract. Not in 2041, when it expires, but today." — Premier Andrew Furey, announcing on Dec. 12 a new memorandum of understanding on Churchill Falls hydroelectric power with Quebec that, if sanctioned, will replace a contentious 65-year contract.
"I think we really need to be careful about this and not be driven by artificial deadlines. We need to make sure that we don't repeat the mistakes of the past, particularly Muskrat Falls." — Energy critic Ron Penney, who wants the Public Utilities Board to review the tentative deal with Quebec on Churchill Falls.
"In addressing that deal, it can't simply be about the next election. It has to be about the next generation… We have to get this right." — PC Leader Tony Wakeham on the new Churchill Falls deal.
"I think as young women we're always told what we're supposed to do, how we're supposed to think, and not to trust our instincts. But most of the time … the gut instinct is right. I knew I was sick. I knew what was happening wasn't right, and I could have died if I didn't keep going back to the hospital." — Joy Spence, who was told repeatedly by ER doctors and nurses that she had anxiety and constipation, before surviving the effects of a gangrenous appendix.
"It makes me sick to my stomach. It breaks my heart. It makes me angry and brings back all those feelings I had trying to get someone to intervene and put a stop to the situation my son had been pulled into." — The mother of a young man who as a young teenager was stopped in a car with alleged rapist Tony Humby and two other boys. She was not told for years that Humby was at the point already on the radar of the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary.
"Do not, do not get caught up in cat-calling. Do not get caught up in incitement. If anybody says anything to you today, say have a nice day." – Protest organizer John Efford, Jr., telling demonstrating fish harvesters to not run afoul of a court injunction over budget day protests at Confederation Building in March.
"As of yesterday, I had no future, what I got I'm gonna lose. Today, I got a future." — Fish harvester Daniel Hearn, shortly after a deal was reached to allow fish harvesters to sell to out-of-province buyers.
"All I'm asking you is to get on the ball and start taking care of these bodies. Put them to rest. Let them be at peace. Because right now they're not, and they need to be at peace." — Janice Strickland, on deceased bodies kept indefinitely in freezers at the Health Sciences Centre. One of them was her daughter, Sarah. The family was able to bury her after community fundraising efforts raised more than $10,000.
"I think there are systemic issues where there isn't respect for the people of northern Labrador to the point where I actually believe it's systemic racism." — Torngat Mountains MHA Lela Evans, reacting to revelations that it took health officials 18 months to fix the morgue in Nain, where there was no space to respectfully keep the community's deceased loved ones.
"He was a true politician who never forgot where he came from. He never forgot his roots, he never forgot why he was involved in politics, which was to help other people." — Eddie Joyce speaking of fellow MHA Derrick Bragg, who died in January at the age of 59.
"To hear that he may have done this … is something we're all still struggling to digest … This tragedy has deeply shaken our community." — Maryam Hajheidari, a board member of the Newfoundland and Labrador Iran Alliance, reacting to how Mahdi Pourbaghi allegedly murdered his wife Baran Abed, not long after she emigrated to join him in St. John's. He was later found in a presumed murder-suicide.
"It's absolutely ridiculous. It's probably the worst decision I've ever seen out of Ottawa, and I've seen some beauts." — Fisheries union leader Greg Pretty on the federal government's announcement that touted the end of the cod moratorium in Newfoundland and Labrador.
"Before COVID, I used to go to Walmart and fill my purse with school snacks. Groceries cost me a fraction of what it does today … Not long before Christmas we were down to nothing. Literally nothing." — Bell Island resident Tara Saunders, describing how the cost of living has hit her family of five hard. She said she and her husband skip meals to ensure the children eat.
"The dog just had one small little laceration, which is not usually the situation when you hear 'bear versus dog.'" — Veterinarian Maggie Brown-Bury, describing how a small dog came out OK after growling at a brown bear near Clarenville this fall.
"That's the ultimate sacrifice right there, not to be able to eat Mary Brown's." — Yassir El-Tahan, on the elation of being able to eat Mary Brown's after it introduced a halal menu at Memorial University. He had given it up for his wife, who follows a strict halal diet.
"This is just another waste of time… I defy anybody to read the minutes of the 29 meetings … and say this is a good and wise use of university resources." — Memorial University alumnus Robert Bishop, describing the very long consultations held by an ad hoc committee debating whether the university's should change a decision to drop the Ode to Newfoundland from convocation ceremonies.
"I have so much support throughout Canada, but home is where it's at, you know? Newfoundland and Labrador, they send love no matter what I'm doing, and even here I can feel this tremendous amount of support and love just coming through." — Katarina Roxon, describing the value of local support as she competed at her fifth Paralympics, in Paris. Roxon finished eighth in the 100m breaststroke SB8 final.
"I held onto the hood and I think that moment absolutely saved my life." — Nicole Kieley, describing in January how a freak auto accident pushed the Mount Pearl councillor through the window of a Shoppers Drug Mart.
"I've sat at the desk before when I've watched and read the announcements coming in for the numbers in elections. I always found that very exciting. I can tell you it's very different from this side." — Fred Hutton, referencing his career as a journalist shortly after winning a January byelection as the Liberal candidate in Conception Bay East-Bell Island.
"My girlie's non-verbal. And if I can't be her voice, no one else will." — Danette Payne, expressing concern over cuts to aid through the federal Jordan's Principle policy, which supports Indigenous children with special needs in schools.
"There was a skating rink … and that shagger knocked out my front teeth. And he never apologized. I brought it up to him as recently as a month ago. He never apologized." — Clar Doyle, reminiscing of the first time he met his lifelong friend, Kevin Lewis, a mainstay of theatre in Newfoundland and Labrador, who died in February.
"You can't say that he died of natural causes if those natural causes were caused by neglect." – Cindy Flynn, after learning her son Seamus had been seriously ill with a bacterial infection at Her Majesty's Penitentiary before he was taken to hospital. He died late last year.
"I might get as far as Churchill for a burger. That's my goal. I want to get into Churchill and have a burger at the hotel, and we'll take it from there. I'll go until my body, my bones, or my wife tells me it's time to come home." — Wabush resident Colin Vardy outlining his expectations in February for Cain's Quest, the cross-Labrador snowmobile competition.
"I'm angry when the minister keeps talking about options that aren't really there. They talk about a continuum. The only other time I've heard a continuum being used is in Star Trek: The Next Generation. And just like that, it's a fiction." — NDP Leader Jim Dinn, reacting in April to Housing Minister Fred Hutton saying that a continuum of housing options were available for residents of a tent encampment in St. John's.
"Pain was her friend, yet she managed to continue with a smile, 'cause she knew that this was important. She put herself out there in a way she didn't know or was comfortable with, because she knew that was something that needed to be done." — Tara Chafe, describing her late mother Linda Bishop, who advocated for safer highways after being paralyzed in a moose-vehicle collision in 2004.
"How can it be legal when I'm not ordering anything?" — Lloyd Walker, who went public about being unwittingly enrolled in the Bradford Exchange's subscription service. After ordering a collector's coin, he for months received coins he never ordered or wanted.
"I'm still out in the driveway looking for a spot to pitch a tent and looking for dry wood…I'm going around and putting things in cupboards where it's not supposed to be, and leaving doors open and all this kind of stuff. I'm still half wild." — Explorer Justin Barbour on readjusting to living at home after spending a year in the Canadian wilderness.
"It's a real honour to be my age and get to go out and just be a part of it at all… Because of the odds of this, it's up there with my first NHL game." — Terry Ryan on playing with the Growlers in January in St. John's. It was Ryan's 47th birthday.
"He's going to be a tiny boy but there's a big world for him to grow into." — Mary Rankin, describing her grandson, Rowan Brazil, who was born with a rare genetic condition and spent months receiving treatment in Toronto before coming back to Newfoundland and Labrador in June.
"For narcotics, for example, she's trained to sit. So we're going along doing a search, she's all of a sudden pulling down hard through the weeds and gives me a sit and starts looking at me like 'Dad, I found something.' Any dog owner can relate to that. And sure enough, there's a pile of drugs sitting there." — RCMP Cpl. Kyle Hrynyk, talking about the work his police dog, Marlow, did to help a huge August drug bust in Clarenville.
"This is home. You smell the beach, that's the smell of money that is… Some of these fellas say 'oh that's stink,' but that's not a stink, that's perfume to us." — Bren Follett, a Western Bay resident, describing the importance of capelin to the rural economy.
Download our free CBC News app to sign up for push alerts for CBC Newfoundland and Labrador. Sign up for our daily headlines newsletter here. Click here to visit our landing page.
