Congrats for your friend, but is he Christian or Muslim?
They are giving us Muslims extremely hard time with the security screening. I also have strong reasons to believe that they are delaying a percentage of Muslim applicants on purpose and just never give them a decision.
I have been waiting for 19 months since AOR! I am already in Canada since 2012! I have contacted the security agencies responsible for conducting security screenings for IRCC (CSIS (Canadian Intelliegence, CBSA (Canadian Border Service Agency), and RCMP (Canadian Police)) and all of them confirmed that the security screening results were sent to IRCC more than a year ago! Nevertheless, I didn't receive any decision and IRCC claims they are still waiting for the security screening results! So I believe they have a hidden policy/agenda of limiting the number of Muslim applicants they accept.