You mean the orange tags?

IIRC, bags loaded at YVR have "priority" status baked into the barcode, so a torn off tag shouldn't affect priority, and I'd imagine YYZ bag scanners are capable of reading them. Maybe your problem lies with the human baggage handlers (if there are any at the final step before the baggage carousel, which I doubt) who said "oh hey this doesn't have an orange tag, let's make them wait!"