I live in the UK, when I was still back and forth to visit my now wife, one thing we noticed is you can save $100-$300 by using a VPN and booking everything from outside Canada. This is more evident when booking with Air Canada, but always worth popping on a VPN and looking at what the price differences are.

Air Canada will make up some bullshit reason to not give you compensation.

Pilot couldn't make it there? It was a "maintenance issue".

Story time?

I work up north where it’s cold as fuck, company flys me in and out. On one travel day heading home somebody at air Canada forgot to plug the plane in after it’s final flight from the day before. I guess with what was drawing power and the frigid temperatures the battery(s) were no longer good to go for my flight. So their plan was to send a mechanic up from Vancouver with new battery(s) and get us in our way. They got halfway to us and realized they didn’t put the replacement battery(s) on the flight. So they had to turn around and get them and come back up. This caused me to miss my connection and the next one they could get me on was the next day. I submitted a claim since everything was 100% within their control. They denied it. So I replied to them with everything that happened, and told them to pay up or I was submitting a a claim with the CTA. They sent me a direct deposit for $1000 and and apology.

here's what you need to know about compensation

You're not getting it. Simple as.