And so on the return YOW-YYC on Monday night, there wasn't a single person in line to check bags when I showed up - granted I was 2.5 hours early, and there was only the YYC and YYZ flights, but what a difference.
Plus I finally managed to get a ticket cancelled for the same flight (was $80 more than when I rebooked) at 12:30 pm on Monday, finally getting through after a 60+ minute wait on the phone, on about my eighth attempt to call. Sigh.