"Do 301 redirects pass on all link juice, or is there a 'dampening' effect? How about canonical link tags?"
As far as I know (and I know a LOT about SEO), there's no dampening factor -- at least none that I've seen.
Please follow up with your experience. I am in the beginning of a redirect to a brand new domain. within only a month it is ranking for long tail but I don't notice any signs that it is picking up the quality links that are 301 redirected from the original site. how is the progress 3 months after the original post?