No. Nothing about soft-landing is illegal.
Ping me on Whatsapp if you want a link for PRTD group. Last I checked the wait times was close to 4 months for it. It may have improved recently.
The easiest way, of course, is to have your PR card with you. Land in Canada, and have your PR card delivered to your friend's house. Many people in the PRTD Whatsapp group have had their PR card FedExed to India. They didn't face any issue but it is technically against the laws actually.
I can't remember the handbook I read for CBSA officials, but mailing travel documents by someone else other than the owner of that document is illegal. I did my research before my own soft-landing. CBSA has the right to seize it under the pretense that it may be misused by someone. Even if it does get caught, you have to tell them that you asked someone to mail it to you. In that case, you will be allowed to collect it from some CBSA office, there won't be charges against you, as long as you can prove that you were going to use it for yourself and weren't doing anything illegal with it.