Hello, I'd like to establish this point, if I may.
You do not have to face death to be a Convention refugee in Canada and you do not have to be a Convention refugee in order to receive Canada's protection.
The actual Canadian definition of a Convention refugee is:
96 A Convention refugee is a person who, by reason of a well-founded fear of persecution for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group or political opinion,
- (a) is outside each of their countries of nationality and is unable or, by reason of that fear, unwilling to avail themself of the protection of each of those countries; or
- (b) not having a country of nationality, is outside the country of their former habitual residence and is unable or, by reason of that fear, unwilling to return to that country.
s 97 of IRPA details people who may require protection and who may not be Convention refugees and while a risk to life is included there, it isn't mandatory that death be a result.
- 97 (1) A person in need of protection is a person in Canada whose removal to their country or countries of nationality or, if they do not have a country of nationality, their country of former habitual residence, would subject them personally
- (a) to a danger, believed on substantial grounds to exist, of torture within the meaning of Article 1 of the Convention Against Torture; or
- (b) to a risk to their life or to a risk of cruel and unusual treatment or punishment if
- (i) the person is unable or, because of that risk, unwilling to avail themself of the protection of that country,
- (ii) the risk would be faced by the person in every part of that country and is not faced generally by other individuals in or from that country,
- (iii) the risk is not inherent or incidental to lawful sanctions, unless imposed in disregard of accepted international standards, and
- (iv) the risk is not caused by the inability of that country to provide adequate health or medical care.
Criminals who may face the death penalty but are not CRs could fit into s 97 without meeting the definition of s 96. This is why Canada occasionally seeks diplomatic assurances to not execute certain people that they seek to deport.
Rest easier persecuted people who aren't facing actual death, and those fewer people facing death (or torture) who aren't being persecuted.