Canada as a country is Signatory to the 1951 Convention Related to the Status of Refugees and the 1967 Protocol from the United Nation. The 1951 Convention was originally limited to people affected by World War II in Europe. The 1967 Protocol to the Convention removed the Geographical Limitations of Europe as well as the temporal limitation and provided an unlimited time frame. As such Canada accepts ‘Convention Refugees’.
A Convention Refugee is a person who by reason of a well-founded fear of persecution for reason of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group or political opinion,
a) Is outside each of their countries of nationality and is unable or, by reason of that fear, unwilling to avail themselves of the protection of each of those countries, OR
b) Not having a country of nationality, is outside the country of their former habitual residence and is unable OR, by reason of that fear, unwilling to return to that country.
However, there are exclusion to the above which says, should the person be excluded from Canada’s protection because they have status in another country(Article 1E) or because they do not deserve Canada’s protection(Article 1F) for example because of war crimes, serious criminality etc.