diff --git a/system_tests/bigquery.py b/system_tests/bigquery.py
index f16cdf7cf056..1c566b4e4e0d 100644
--- a/system_tests/bigquery.py
+++ b/system_tests/bigquery.py
@@ -464,4 +464,8 @@ def _job_done(instance):
         retry = RetryInstanceState(_job_done, max_tries=8)
         retry(job.reload)()
 
-        self.assertEqual(job.state.lower(), 'done')
+        # The `cancel` API doesn't leave any reliable traces on
+        # the status of the job resource, so we can't really assert for
+        # them here.  The best we can do is not that the API call didn't
+        # raise an error, and that the job completed (in the `retry()`
+        # above).