See the most powerful images from 2021 Canadian news events

CTV National News: Year two of the pandemic Avis Favaro looks back at how far we have come in the second year of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In 2021, Canadians were informed about the discovery of thousands of unmarked graves at former residential schools, witnessed devastating weather events in B.C. and visited mass vaccination clinics that popped up around the country.

Here's a look at 15 of the most powerful images from the major Canadian news events of 2021.

A lone pedestrian crosses an empty Rene-Levesque Boulevard in Montreal after Quebec introduced new COVID-19 lockdown measures in January 2021. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Paul Chiasson)

Queen Elizabeth II is seen in St. George’s Chapel during the funeral of Prince Philip, the man who had been by her side for 73 years, at Windsor Castle, Windsor, England, Saturday April 17, 2021. (Yui Mok/Pool via AP)

A teenaged boy uses a skateboard to move up and down selling popcorn to Southern Alberta residents lining up to get shots of a COVID-19 vaccine from a Montana tribe in Carway, Alta., Tuesday, on May 18, 2021. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh)

Members of the Tsuut'ina Nation take part in a silent march in memory of the 215 unmarked graves found at Kamloops, B.C., in Calgary, Alta., Monday, June 7, 2021. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh)

People pray at a vigil outside the London Muslim Mosque for the victims of the deadly vehicle attack on five members of the Canadian Muslim community in London, Ont., on Tuesday, June 8, 2021.

Four of the members of the family died and one is in critical condition. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette)

Flags and lights are seen as a vigil takes place where ground-penetrating radar recorded hits of what are believed to be 751 unmarked graves near the grounds of the former Marieval Indian Residential School on the Cowessess First Nation, Sask. on Saturday, June 26, 2021. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Mark Taylor)

People receive a dose of the COVID-19 vaccine at a mass vaccination clinic at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto on Sunday, June 27, 2021. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Cole Burston)

Mary Simon is congratulated by her husband Whit Fraser after being sworn in as the 30th governor general of Canada on during a ceremony in the Senate in Ottawa on Monday, July 26, 2021. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Paul Chiasson)

Simon became the first Indigenous person in Canada to take on the role. From Nunavik, in northern Quebec, Simon has long been an advocate for Inuit rights and culture. She has also worked alongside the federal government on several files over many years.

Canada's Penny Oleksiak looks at her results in the women's 200m freestyle semifinal event during the Tokyo Summer Olympic Games, in Tokyo, Tuesday, July 27, 2021. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Frank Gunn)

Oleksiak made the history books in Tokyo by becoming the most decorated Canadian Olympian of all time.

Refugees from Afghanistan and Canadian Citizens board a bus after being processed at Pearson Airport in Toronto, Tuesday, Aug 17, 2021, after arriving indirectly from Afghanistan. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick)

Motorcyclists stopped at a gas station watch as a pyrocumulus cloud, also known as a fire cloud, produced by the Lytton Creek wildfire rises into the sky from the fire burning in the mountains above Lytton, B.C., on Sunday, Aug. 15, 2021. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck)

Members of the Canadian women's soccer team celebrate their Gold-medal win against Sweden at the Tokyo Olympics in Yokohama, Japan on Friday, Aug. 6, 2021. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld)

Photo of Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig arriving in Canada, Sept. 25, 2021. (Source: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau)

Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig were released from a Chinese prison after more than 1,000 days.

Children who are part of the Hospital for Sick Children family between the ages of 5 and 11 years of age are some of the first to get vaccinated for COVID-19 at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, in Toronto, Tuesday, Nov. 23, 2021. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Steve Russell)

A child stands by a wall of "Every Child Matters," artwork during the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation in Ottawa on Thursday, Sept. 30, 2021. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick)

Collapsed sections of bridges destroyed by severe flooding and landslides on the Coquihalla Highway north of Hope, B.C., are seen in an aerial view from a Canadian Forces reconnaissance flight on Monday, Nov. 22, 2021. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck)