You dont have to have your flights entirely on United - you can add on a short hop on AC to/from YYG - and you wont get dinged extortion fees.

You can also fly on TK, SQ, CA, LX to Asia and not be scammed by Air Canada.
There are many threads about which airlines do not attract scamcharges

Do a search on united.com (award travel) - you are looking for blue (saver) seats - those will be available to Aeroplan phone agents