To respond to the first part of your question, there's no law in Canada that requires the police to submit fingerprints when people are charged with criminal offences. It is required under young offenders legislation, but in general there is no law that requires police to submit fingerprints.
So to have a criminal record in Canada.... We'll only open a criminal record and add to the criminal record for fingerprints to be submitted with the charges, or whatever took place. That is the only way we can guarantee that the person who has the record is who they are. A lot of people use aliases or other people's names. Fingerprints are the only way to make sure we have an accurate record for a particular person.