I thought that it might help some on this board, so here's what I wrote to Green88 this morning in a PM.

I'm a financial planner in the Province of Québec. I may have missed some details since I work mainly in french, but you're right about the hardship rule.

Also, you may "unlock" part of your Locked-in RRSP and transfer it to your RRSP :

for your Locked-in RRSP (federal juridiction) you can unlock 50% of it one time in your life to transfer it to your RRSP.

for your Locked-in RRSP (BC juridiction) if it works the same as here, at the beginning of the year, you transfer your LIRA into a LIF. Then, it allows you to transfer to your RRSP the difference between the minimum you have to withdraw and the maximum allowed. Once it's done, you transfer back your LIF into your LIRA. You do this to be sure that by december 31st, you don't have any money in your LIF that would trigger a minimum to withdraw the year that follow. The next year you repeat the same operations.

GLTA