Called Aeroplan.
Talked to a very knowledgeable agent. He confirmed that at the moment there are NO business class award seats available on any ET flights in the Aeroplan system. He called "another department" and then told me they can see that the seats are actually available by direct booking in the starnet, but said that those seats cannot be booked because they were not released to Aeroplan and they are not allowed to do a direct booking.
So yes, in effect, Aeroplan blocks all ET business class awards seats at the moment.