So, over the last week some interesting stuff has been happening.
The company offered me a month's salary in exchange for a release of claim, money I could really use badly (I'm still pretty broke from paying for my trip in July to go to my cousin's wedding, though I did pay down some of that debt in August). I talked to an attorney about the whole thing, and he said I should send in a counter-offer asking for a pile of stuff since I had little to lose, but that he agreed I wouldn't get anything worthwhile if I actually tried to sue (which I had assumed from the start).
A combination of factors affected any attempt at a counter-offer, the most important of which was that there was no one there who could even reply to one before their deadline for submitting the waiver was up. If I waited, I risked losing even that nominal one-month payment. So I split the difference, and submitted a letter asking for them to resecind their nasty letter of termination (it's pretty petty - the lawyer actually laughed at their choice of language) and to change the reason of termination to a neutral one. This is important for a variety of reasons, not least of which in Canada if you're fired with cause, you have to contest that to get employment insurance payments. I didn't ask for more money or anything complicated, and I sent in the waiver as a show of good faith (but still invoked the lawyer). Basically, all I want is for them to change the official reason I was fired to something neutral like "position restructured" or whatever.
I thought they'd blow me off and I would just be going through the motions, but surprisingly, I might just get what I want. Keepin' my fingers crossed, 'cause that will make things a lot easier for me going forward. I'll find out in a few days.