in your friend case, since he/she got AIP and have file transferred to local office its most probably the wait for Interview call, Order case file and read what trigger the Interview
In the meantime if he receive a call from CBSA for Interview go for it, It's most likely for removal ready, when CBSA see you have sponsorship file they might request CIC to expedite and wait for the sponsorship outcome before deporting him
In my case my husband received passport request and police clearance only after our Interview, However his passport is with CBSA, There is no way CBSA will release the passport.
What we did is we wrote a letter to CBSA attached with passport request letter by CIC, CBSA then wrote back saying they will not release the passport due to pending refugee case and it will be handed over to CIC upon confirmation of PR
The letter also says that we can use this to present it as a proof that we try to obtain his passport
We then send the letter we received from CBSA to our VO, After our Interview our VO provided us her email for any updates so it was easy for us to communicate with our VO and she waived passport request, within a month we were called for Landing Interview
During Landing Interview my husband was given his passport