The answer from Canada Post is:
There's a Global Regulation (all countries supposedly have agreed) on mail shipment of Lithium Batteries that all countries are
supposed to follow. Currently this allows transportation by
ground mail between two points within a country but disallows
air mail,
especially when crossing International borders.
Unless....
the shipper applies for and is granted permission with the postal service in their country to ship Potentially Hazardous Goods.
Carriers such as FedEx or UPS are not bound by the postal regulations.
So it may be that shipments from China to the U.S. are by carrier, not mail, even though they may go by air.
The Canada Post agent was able to use my tracking number to see that the package, shipped by Swiss Post, arrived in Switzerland and was shipped from there on Nov. 13th, but couldn't see the destination, which could be to Canada but is likely back to eStore in China.
(After thought: maybe the goods go by rail from China to Switzerland so there's no air mail yet and Swiss Air then realizes that the camera contains potentially hazardous goods and won't waste time and expense to ship to Canada because it won't be returned if they do, so they return the camera by rail (or truck) to China, even though they cross multiple International Borders...)
If it
was shipped to Canada, via post, there's still the chance that Canada Post will reject it, and, may simply destroy it (or take it home as an early Xmas present) because, once in Canada, it's illegal to ship it back because it would have to cross an International border to do so.
Catch22.
He also said that eStore may have applied for and been granted permission to ship by air mail to the U.S. due to the large customer base there but not to Canada due to a much smaller customer base here. (Apparently this process is a PITA and possibly costly).
BUT... if everything shipped by Swiss Post to Canada is being returned, they should realize that they need to find another solution, even if they (eStore) have to charge Canadians a shipping premium to ship by FedEx (etc.). After all, these returns represent actual out-of-pocket costs for the initial postage plus the lost sales $. And major frustration for customers like us.
At least now I know that I can ask Canada Post to check my tracking number, in about a week, to see where the G1W has ended up.
J