It happens because you call it before DOM has loaded. Firstly, create the element and add atrributes to it, then after DOM has loaded call it. In your case it should look like that:
var canvas = document.createElement('canvas');
canvas.id = "CursorLayer";
canvas.width = 1224;
canvas.height = 768;
canvas.style.zIndex = 8;
canvas.style.position = "absolute";
canvas.style.border = "1px solid";
window.onload = function() {
document.getElementById("CursorLayer");
}