In this remarkable year of news, a note of thanks

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We end 2021 much the way it began, with a rush to vaccination — in this case, boosters — as a surge of COVID-19 cases threatens to overwhelm Canada's health-care system and disrupt holiday plans. 

It can feel a bit like Groundhog Day. We've seen this movie before, even if there are a few new plot twists like Omicron.

Yet the months in between have seen a number of remarkable stories and an extraordinary news cycle that will shape our future for years to come.

Though it's hard to think past the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic at times, remember these, to name just a few:

• The Capitol Hill riots in Washington, D.C.

• The fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban.

• Canada's breakout performance at the summer Olympics.

• The release from China of Canadians Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig.

• The appointment of Canada's first Indigenous Governor General, Mary Simon.

• Sexual misconduct in our military.

• The identification of more than 200 potential burial sites of children at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School, and this country's reckoning with its history of residential schools.

• The latest WE charity revelations.

• The devastating heat wave in Western Canada and, later, flooding in B.C.

Watch a highlight reel of some of 2021's biggest news stories:

A brief tour of top stories of 2021

3 years ago

Duration 3:01

From the Capitol riot and the emergence of new coronavirus variants to the devastating B.C. floods and the fall of the Western-backed Afghan regime, 2021 was another extraordinary and trying year for people around the world. Here's a look at how CBC covered some of the most gripping stories of 2021. (Credit: Ben Nelms/CBC)

On behalf of all of us at CBC News, Current Affairs and Local, I want to thank you for trusting us to tell these stories each day.

Thank you also to the countless number of you who trusted us with your story and your voice whenever we approached with a microphone, camera, notebook, email, DM, or phone call. We can't do this job without you.   

It is a privilege to do journalism in service to Canadians in times like this.

As the video says, we will be here for you in 2022.