There is one case I know of where someone mentioned their A/T tires with no snowflake symbol passed requirements for Quebec's law. However I still maintain they are less than ideal unless you live in a rural area. A/T tires outperform winter tires in deep snow, but the rubber compound gets too hard and they have no ice abilities. Winter tires make a huge difference on ice, especially micro-grit and multi-cell tires. Some control is better than none.
With the same exact tire on our MDX and Escape, the heavier AWD MDX starts and stops better than the FWD Escape. I bet that you would get much better performance out of snow tires on the Escape than you currently get with A/Ts. You have more traction than I do in snow, but I would stop sooner than you do on ice, in slush, and on bare, cold pavement.