Forum readers,
  Coincards.ca is legit.  I've had several successful orders now (with an aggregate total of > 5000$ CDN ) all without issues.  So happy with the service so far.
The 5% fee is a bit hard to swallow but converting bitcoin into cash-in-hand through other means, is likely going to be just as painful.

Coincards.ca,
   It would be good to see a capped fee structure or a graded fee structure.   For example if I buy 500$ gift card the fees should be less if I were to 5 times separately order $100 gift cards.  Or if we buy $1000 gift card there should be a lesser fee than smaller orders -  3% fee (for example).   I'd probably use the service more often, if there was a more favourable fee structure.   Oh and visa gift cards would be awesome if you could somehow manage to pull that off in Canada.   

The way CAVirtex originally communicated the shutdown is unforgivable - an email should have been sent out with a clear plan of how operation will wind down and how folks will access their funds.    The original twitter notice was quite vague and open ended, and I wouldn't be surprised if some account holders don't even know yet.

On the plus side .. CAVirtex has kept their promise and re-activated BTC withdrawals.  I was pleasantly surprised to get a phone call from CAVirtex who verified my information before re-activating BTC withdrawal.  

Overall - I was impressed with CAVirtex during it's lifetime, but extremely disappointed in it's communication strategy regarding the shutdown.

------------------------
ADDENDUM: CAVirtex has since sent out an email regarding the shutdown to all it's clients.  It's 10 days late, but at least they're finally doing the right thing.       

If CAVirtex is truly a legitimate operation, then CAVirtex needs to perform the following actions :

1. Send out an email to all clients informing them about the planned closure.  It's not acceptable to simply post a message on your website or twitter.    You need to make reasonable efforts to communicate this major event.   This should take about 2 minutes (literally) to implement an email broadcast to all clients ...

2. Communicate a plan of how/if/when CAVirtex will re-enable BTC/LTC withdrawals.   While CAVirtex indicates that disablement of withdrawals is "temporary" there's no indication of when BTC/LTC withdrawal will be re-enabled.

3. Communicate a plan of how CAVirtex will return BTC/LTC funds to clients.   While CAVirtex indicates BTC/LTC funds will be returned to the address provided in the user preferences, there's no mention of when, or how BTC/LTC funds can be transferred.

4. Communicate a plan of how CAVirtex will return CDN funds to clients.   While CAVirtex indicates that disablement of withdrawals is temporary, and that CAVirtex will "communicate" with clients that hold balances after March 25th, there is no explicit statement of how/when/if CDN funds will be returned.  Also what happens if clients are not even "verified" yet ... I suspect folks will have a hard time giving you ID documents given the current situation.

5.  Elaborate what happens after March 25th.  Statements made by CAVirtex are very open ended and do not articulate what happens after March 25th for remaining balances.  I don't think it give us the warm-fuzzy's that CAVirtex will communicate with us after March 25th ...

If CAVirtex is "solvent" and has maintained 100% reserves to payout client balances it should have nothing to hide at this point.
Please communicate a detailed plan, and provide regular updates if parts of this plan are "to-be-determined" (like reactivating withdrawals for example!).