Swiper - your pads are probably contaminated. Pull your pads out, sand them a bit, and clean your rotors with a bit of degreaser. Pads are porous and can absorb oil to the point where you can't just sand off the top layer and you should replace the pads. Pay attention to what brand and material the new pad is - cheaply made pads are down right dangerous. On my Downhill bike, where my brakes really matter (50km/h inches from trees), I don't mess with my pads, and if they get contaminated, they get tossed and new ones go in right away.
I prefer V-brakes for commuting simply because they are much cheaper to replace when contaminated beyond what a quck sanding will solve.
As for recycles, one of my good friends is a head mechanic there. I fully support them and think they are a truely awesome resource in Ottawa. Going in there and fixing your bike yourself is seriously bad ass (and it takes away the mystery of fixing bikes, making bike ownership so much cheaper in the long run). However, I tried buying my wife a commuter bike there, and was really unimpressed. Most the bikes are simply collections of parts they had donated. They aren't nice coherent bikes. The few 'complete' bikes they get and clean up are nice, but are more expensive than buying from craigslist/kijiji and then fixing up.