At the risk of being flamed for espousing unpopular views, there are some other factors to consider in this whole discussion. I doubt the planners sat around and voted to screw smaller centres because they could with a decision like this. That something always disproportionately affects smaller Canadians centres is nothing new and will only continue given the trend towards increased migration to urban or metro areas. As of the last census roughly two thirds of the Canadians live in metro areas as defined by
StatsCan:

http://www.statcan.ca/english/Pgdb/demo05a.htm

The impact of bereavement fares is diminishing as the country becomes more urbanized and has better access to competative choices that help keep prices down. Yes, there will be always be examples of costs being higher than they were but at the same time haven't many here begged and pleaded with AC to ditch the old legacy ways and go forward with a leaner, meaner mentality? Sure the optics on this perhaps don't make AC come out smelling like roses, but in the end it's business and AC is supposed to be in the airline business to make money. That some unpopular steps are taken towards achieving profitability perhaps is inevitable. The larger issue of service levels to smaller centres may well be revisited sooner rather than later as AC continues to rebuild/redefine/reinvent itself.

Somewhere somehow AC must know how many BR requests pre or post trip it has been receiving in recent years and I would be curious to see what those numbers are.

I appreciate the debate and the views of all posters on this subject.