^^I agree with the above.
I understand the frustration many couples face, but I also understand the CIC angle.
Rather, I was surprised when my friend told me that under spousal sponsorship, she did not have to do IELTS (husband is a Canadian citizen) and they directly checked her medical and criminal... So I think they are actually pretty lenient...
If you look at it from this angle, there are countless number of people whose spouses would never have met the minimum requirement, but because the PA meets it, they manage to come to the country as well... (considering the fact that at the end of the day, they are still 2 individual entities).. and then many cases result in divorce as well.... so basically you have 1 single applicant, who ended up in the country, without meeting basic requirements.... so I think that is another case they may consider as well..
Keeping all that in mind, I think its fair enough if they expect the spouse to have some basic education and language skills to get enough points to meet the cutoff...