I think the bar you are referring to is the bar preventing HC application from being submitted following a negative decision from IRB, which gets relaxed if you have a child. For PrRA, the bar is pretty firm:
https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/corporate/publications-manuals/operational-bulletins-manuals/refugee-protection/removal-risk-assessment/applications-intake.html
Generally, it all comes to the discretion of the CBSA officer that handles your case. Some are "nice" and hand it out without you even asking, like in my partner's case. He is not from a high risk country, but the officer was mindful of the fact that I am Canadian citizen and we have a Canadian child. I guess he just felt personally sorry for our case and I do recognize that he was "exceptionally" nice. But others would not offer PRRA, especially if they want to meet their removal targets. I observe that in larger cities CBSA officers are pretty determined to remove. For example, while Ottawa had their removals on hold last year due to covid (lucky us!), Montreal was removing people right and left as if there was no tomorrow.
There is no requirement to be from a particular Country to be qualified for PRRA but you have to demonstrate, verbally, during your pre-removal interview, that your life will be at risk. Once they hear those hint words "risk" and "life", they have a certain protocol to follow. Try this strategy at your next meeting and fingers crossed. No guarantee that it would work with your officer, but what else can we do other than trying? You have not lost this battle yet. Patience, my friend.
