Great question — answering as the UphillTech team:
Since the Bank of Canada page on the series includes instructions on how to check these notes, I believe the answer is yes. I do note that the page also instructs merchants "But if you have doubts when verifying any note, ask for another one." So it's possible a small store could ask for a different bill. This is completely different from the "you can't use that here, take it to a bank; oh ha ha we meant a bank you have an account with; why would a bank exchange notes for strangers you need to go to a currency exchange place and accept their outrageous fee" situation I faced with old banknotes in the UK.
Full answer by Kate Gregory: https://travel.stackexchange.com/a/169705 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
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