My uncle teaches at the University of Alberta, and we went to visit him a few times when I was younger. I remember getting the distinct impression that your animal protection laws were insane--on three different occasions, we found ourselves in a restaurant where a smallish animal had gotten inside, and because it was illegal to even shoo them out the door again, they were allowed to just sort of scurry around under the tables eating dropped food. Of course as a young girl I thought they were a good deal cuter than my parents did.
Perhaps that was a local thing though, I don't really remember what parts of Canada we were visiting at the time.