So here is what I have done since my refusal. Strongly advise anyone else using gifts as a partial/complete source of funds to provide all possible documents to conclusively prove that the gift is here to stay.
> Got additional signed & stamped documentation from the bank which clearly establishes debit from my father's account and credit to my account - to conclusively prove that the monies did indeed physically transfer from one account to the other.
> Got a fresh bank certificate that states that my account balance is well in excess of 11,931 CAD and the 6 months average balance is also healthy now because the monies have stayed around untouched for more than 4 months.
> Got my father to give me a a fresh self-signed declaration to reinforce the act of 'gifting' me the funds earlier and mentioned all possible transaction details in this letter.
> Made a document explanation pdf which identifies each of these documents by name and explains the purpose of acquiring each of these documents.
> Created a CSE (used up nearly all of the 1500 words allowed to outline my reasoning for them to reassess my application in the light of this documentation while reiterating that none of these documents are post-facto and pertain to claims originally made in my application), attached all the above mentioned documents, submitted the CSE and received an auto acknowledgment which indicates a 30 day response window.
> Created a new EE profile (I'm still north of 450 but I've lost considerable points because of my birthday, growing older is never fun!) and will wait for either CIC to reopen my application based on the CSE (remote possibility) or send me another ITA (more likely).
Looking forward...