dogcatdoc said:
Let's say I'm from country A, where conscription is mandatory. I dodged the conscription and am working in Canada instead and would like to apply for PR here. Country A then treated my draft dodging as a crime. Will Canada check for the criminal record for draft dodging/desertion and will this affect my chance of getting PR here? If there's anything else I can read from that'd be great too.
There's a policy of handing military deserters on a case-by-case basis (under refugee claims), but primarily because desertion is also a crime in Canada. But evasion is not desertion.
If you do have a criminal record, the rule is to apply Canadian law to determine if the same action would be a crime in Canada. Since there is no draft in Canada, there is no parallel in Canadian law. You *might* have a chance. You would have to write a letter of explanation...
It might be worth a consultation with an immigration lawyer.