CBC Ottawa's must-see videos of 2024
CBC News | Posted: December 26, 2024 9:00 AM | Last Updated: December 26
Viewers honed in on personal stories, explainers and 2 pieces on mistaken identity
The play button got heavy use over the last 12 months on videos that explained, surprised and dug deeper.
Here in descending order is a look back at the most-watched videos of the year on cbc.ca/ottawa.
Want more of these videos? Check out our 24/7 streaming channel.
Hurling eggs, insults
A viral video showing two people throwing eggs at a suburban Ottawa home while making racist remarks sparked outrage late in the spring.
The woman living in the home that was targeted told CBC News her family, which has South Korean roots, has endured "unimaginable pain" over the past two years as a result of continuous noise and harassment.
Two people were charged with mischief causing damage to property under $5,000 and criminal harassment. One of them had said before being charged that his family members were "one of the only white families" in the area, and that they were the ones being bullied.
Pembroke fights fentanyl
Pembroke has more than double the number of fatal overdoses per capita than the rest of the province, according to Public Health Ontario.
In response, Renfrew County has been trying a different approach.
Omar Dabaghi-Pacheco and Ryan Garland visited Pembroke to follow paramedic Lori Shannon on the job and see the work through her eyes.
Their report has also had hundreds of thousands of views on YouTube.
Mistaken arrest
Kane Niyondagara, a young man from Burundi, said he struggled to breathe as an Ottawa police officer pushed his face into the snow in February.
Ottawa police later acknowledged they had the wrong man.
The service is now considering tracking arrests made due to mistaken identity, and whether racialized people are disproportionately affected.
Hoarding warning
Pat Wong from Ottawa has six storage lockers filled to the brim, a home packed with decades of stuff — and a cautionary tale to share.
The Eiffel … bridge?
When Winterlude unveiled a light show around the rue Montcalm bridge, Matthew Kupfer put together a history lesson on the bridge's ties to Gustave Eiffel and his namesake tower in Paris.
Convoy reflections
Three years ago, Tamara Lich and Chris Barber led a convoy of trucks to Ottawa to protest COVID-19 mandates.
Back home in Western Canada, they reflected on that turbulent time and its consequences, both personal and political.
Attack in Panama
A Gatineau couple say they were inside their parked bus in Panama on Oct. 28 when a group of armed assailants fired on the vehicle and forced their way inside.
The attack cost one of them an earlobe, a tooth and stitches, and interrupted a five-year trip across South and Central America.
A very surprising call
In January, Heather Insley spent three excruciating days at Ottawa's Montfort Hospital, watching her eldest son die. Days later, she was speaking with him on the phone.
The hospital later confirmed the "misidentification of a patient."
The story was also one of CBC's most-read of 2024.
Purple lanes
It's not McDonald's latest marketing stunt for its purple blob Grimace, a memorial to Prince or a rogue Minnesota Vikings fan turning some street lights purple: It's chemistry.
Explaining the youths
Many generations come up with their own sayings and catchphrases to stand out. Here's some of what people born between the late 1990s and early 2010s are talking about.
Post-eviction struggles
After losing his home in June, John Grant Yusak headed to a Walmart parking lot in south Ottawa.
That was only the beginning of his journey from his truck to an airport waiting room to an all-night bus circuit, as he tried every option he could find to avoid ending up at a homeless shelter after a previous bad experience.
The Salvation Army said in October they'd found Yusak an apartment a few weeks after he shared his story.