I will just tell a story. Anecdotes are dangerous, but I will tell a story of a very prominent Canadian business person who is a member of my board of directors, whose mother lived in India. She had a 10-year, multi-entry visa to get into the United States, but had a very difficult time getting even a single-entry visa into Canada. When he approached immigration officials at CIC, he said that when his mother wanted to see her American grandchildren she could go to see them in the United States, but when she wanted to see her Canadian grandchildren, they had to see her in the United States.
So this puts a great deal of pressure on the system.
I would say that the system is getting better, but as I said earlier to your colleague, just understanding the rejection criteria sometimes will help facilitate the process.