I have bought a bunch of stuff from MEC over the years and I have never had any complaints with their MEC branded equi[ment, I was in the Montreal store not long ago . I saw the"Aqua Not" panniers and they looked very good though expensive. They also have a PF series...? that looked similar but wasn't waterproofed for about 1/2 as much. I agree with using trash bags for liners

The Vaude Roadmaster Panniers is not the high quality waterproof panniers Vaude used to make, Stay away. ( I have a 24 year old set of Vaude world tramps that are indestructible).