No pardons needed. VFS Global in cooperation with IRCC, CSIS(Canadian security and Intelligence Service) for various background checks and, probably, a few other Federal agencies, are in charge of the whole process of issuing visas. I am sure IRCC has some kind of supervisory function, and a big say on the final decision, which is in vast majority of cases is a very simple "qualified or not qualified" according to the federal Immigration Act,
I am also sure no Canadian is dealing with the minutia of collecting and piecing together all the information for our immigration files. VFS Global is a big private company, they do visas for 64 countries, and they have have a gazillion VACs....
Here:
With 3399 application centres and operations in 144 countries across 5 continents, VFS Global serves the interests of 64 client governments. The company has successfully processed over 224 million applications since its inception in 2001, and over 97.52 million biometric enrolments since 2007.
Yes, I am saying that the Canadian Embassy has nothing to do with any of our problems!