I'm curious to know how you were able to get the cable box along with your white Toshiba TV. I thought those boxes were the property of the cable company and, as such, were supposed to be returned if or when the customer canceled his/her cable service; if they weren't returned, the customer would be liable for the full cost of the box, which for digital cable boxes (the fancy Motorola HD ones) in my area is well over $300. Further, I don't see how that Samsung box works with your cable, as most if not all of these boxes have to be unlocked, using a special code sent down the cable, by the cable company before they will work--even for local broadcast channels. (That's how the cable boxes work in my area, which has Time Warner Cable.) The only thing I can figure is that the Samsung box was outdated, and the cable company in your area was going to phase them out anyway when Canadian TV went digital, so anyone with an older analog box may have been allowed to keep it. I know someone in my home town who was able to keep a small analog cable box with an older set when Time Warner switched to digital; however, he eventually got a new cable-ready (181 channels) CRT TV and put the small analog cable box in storage.
I don't think there is any way to get around the unlock procedure with any digital cable box. The only thing I can come up with is that your Samsung box is designed for use with analog cable, or perhaps Canada's cable regulations are different from ours here in the US.
