Looking back on 2018

There’s a certain nostalgia that comes with the start of a new year. Even though it is an annual tradition for news media to look back on the stories of the last 12 months, it can still be surprising to remember all of the things that have happened over the course of a given year. Here’s a look back at the stories that stand out when I remember 2018.
Last January was an exception to the rule that the year starts out on a quiet note. The month opened with Sherbrooke being in the national news as media converged on the city for the prosecution’s closing arguments in the Lac Mégantic Criminal negligence trial. Former Montreal, Maine and Atlantic Railway employees Jean Demaître, Richard Labrie, and Thomas Harding were all acquitted, but only after nine days of deliberations. The first month of 2018 was also memorable for a bridge washout. On January 12, rising water on the Saint Francis River, combined with the existing ice on the river, carried away a railway bridge and a neighbouring span used for recreational vehicles, leaving only twisted metal and a massive hole behind that took months to repair. See full story in the Thursday, Jan. 3 edition of The Record.