Gazette journalists share their memories of 2012.

MONTREAL - I came back to work after a year-long maternity leave looking forward to a break from the round-the-clock chaos that is taking care of a baby. And no matter how happy I was at home, I missed the buzz of the newsroom. But “buzz” seems an inadequate description for the avalanche of news that unfolded in Montreal in 2012.

I’m an assignment editor for local news at The Gazette. City editor Michelle Richardson, fellow assignment editor Allison Hanes and I monitor what’s happening in our city, discuss what to cover and how, and dispatch reporters when news breaks.

It can be hectic even when not much is happening. This year, there was so much breaking news that my job felt like trying to walk an unruly pack of dogs pulling in different directions.

I returned to work in spring — just in time for the student protests. Chanting crowds snaked outside below the windows of our downtown office, and we chronicled the movement as it grew and intensified. During the nightly marches, clashes between police and protesters became routine, and we worried about the safety of our reporters and photographers. I monitored their Twitter feeds from home to make sure my colleagues hadn’t been arrested or hurt while covering the protests. I fell asleep (if my son let me sleep, that is) with the hashtag #manifencours embedded behind my eyelids.

As summer neared, we anticipated the usual news slowdown. Not this time. On top of the social and political upheaval that gripped Quebec, the murder of Concordia student Lin Jun garnered worldwide attention. Day after day, new details emerged, or more body parts were found. We covered the story, horrified, struggling with the question of how many details we should include for our readers.

As fall approached, we were thrown into a provincial election campaign that became a riveting three-way race. In the newsroom on election night, exhausted but exhilarated, I watched Pauline Marois’s victory speech on television and told myself it was almost time to call it a night. Nope. There was a shooting outside the Metropolis nightclub where the premier-elect was speaking. As the late-night news staff gathered around the television in disbelief, the people inside the club were as yet unaware.

“Are you OK?” I emailed Kevin Dougherty, the reporter who was covering Marois’s victory speech. “Someone has been shot close to where you’re standing.”

The fact that the suspect was a man in a bathrobe ranting about anglophones was fodder for many more stories, and one of our challenges was — and is — to provide coverage that goes beyond the French-English dichotomy. Especially in a time of tension and upheaval, our readers deserve more.

And then, just as we were thinking about exhaling, the Charbonneau Commission really got going. Day after day, the revelations and allegations had us shaking our heads. Down and out went Montreal’s mayor.

And just to keep us on our toes, there was the political shakeup in Laval.

On many nights this year, I stayed late at the office, poring over our reporters’ excellent coverage in frenzied disbelief.

I found myself repeating lame catchphrases to whoever would listen: “You can’t make stuff like this up!” “There’s no such thing as a slow news day around here!”

It sounds strange, but our newsroom seems to be at its best when things in the city are at their worst and weirdest. Throughout 2012, our reporters and photographers not only covered breaking news, they gave readers context and analysis — like all Montrealers, they tried to make sense of the chaos.

I wouldn’t want to experience a year like this anywhere but in our newsroom.

But I’m still waiting for that break from the action I had been hoping for. More big news in 2013? Bring it on, I say, but let’s have a few quiet days so we can catch our breath.

Even my son takes a nap every so often.

lsolomita@montrealgazette.com