Does a Malaysian citizen require a Canadian visa to go on an Alaskan cruise

Question

My wife's sister, husband & son are coming here to Seattle to take a cruise up the inside passage on Princess Cruise Lines leaving Sunday next (22nd). The sister & son are Australian citizens, so no issues there, but the brother in law is Malaysian.

Our itinerary takes us from Seattle to Ketchikan, to Juneau, to Skagway (here is where there's apparently a potential for the first visa gotcha), and then back to Victoria & home to Seattle. My in-laws were under the impression that because my brother in law intended not to go ashore in Victoria, which is the only "real" Canadian stop, and only for a few hours, he'd be fine with just his US visa & Malaysian passport.

Talking to Princess, this seems to be OK by them, but reading the Canadian visa website, Malaysia's on the list of countries where a visa is always needed:

The following travellers need a visa to come to Canada by any method of travel—plane,car, bus, train or cruise ship.

Note: Holders of a foreign national passport and stateless individuals need a visa to visit or transit through Canada.

Notice it also says "transit".

While my wife & I are flabbergasted they didn't work all this out months ago, and they're already in Hawaii for the first leg of their vacation, we want to help get this sorted out. If it just means my brother in law can't get off the ship a time or two, we're fine with that, but we don't want him to get turned around at the accommodation ladder while boarding the ship.

EDIT: A new bit of information after talking to them on the phone, my brother in law is an Australian Permanent Resident, and that may make him eligible for ETA?

Does my brother in law need a Canadian visa for this trip?

UPDATE The short version is we all showed up for boarding and were sent to secondary; he was escorted out of the building due to the missing Canadian visa (big surprise). The rest of us went on the cruise w/o him.

The secondary process is chaotic at best, there are no agents behind a counter to talk to, it seemed to be one random lady wandering around talking to whoever she ran into next. We waited patiently for the better part of an hour and they finally seemed to get the line (more like gaggle) moving. After another half hour or so, my BIL got a letter from them stating the reasons he wasn't allowed on board, which seemed to satisfy his needs. He may be able to claim restitution from either his travel agent or the cruise line, but I'm not holding my breath.

We had already arranged with some good friends to come pick him up in case of this, so we contacted them and they came out to get him. He ended up spending the week at our house, about an hour away from Seattle.

At least the cruise ship sent over cookies for us to snack on, which was nice. After his departure, we were escorted to the front of the line to get onboard next.

A bit of an aside, my wife was called by the customer service desk about two days into the trip because she also didn't have a Canadian visa (she's Malaysian, but has had a green card for about two decades). She was tempted to mess with them a bit and tell them that she didn't have any further paperwork, but decided that wouldn't be a nice thing to do.

Answer 1

Your brother in law requires a visa to enter Canada. The Canada Immigration page Electronic travel authorization (eTA): Who can apply says:

Visa-required travellers

You don’t need an eTA if you’re visa-required, including alien’s passport holders and stateless individuals. You need to travel with a visitor visa.

Malaysia appears on the above-cited page of "visa required" countries.

It's most likely that to avoid having Canada Immigration involved in every ship arrival and departure in Canada, which would lengthen arrival and departure times and formalities and increase expenditure for staff, and require the presence of Canadian Immigration staff and time and expense, that the cruise line will require every traveler on the route to be able to enter Canada. This would make the stop(s) in Canada far quicker and easier.

Whether the passenger actually debarks, or plans to debark, will be seen by the cruise line as irrelevant.

Thus, without a Canadian visa, the cruise line is most likely to refuse boarding to your BIL.

As to your edit: having Australian permanent residency doesn't give a visa-required applicant an exemption from the visa requirement. Take a look at Canada Immigration's page on eTA Exemptions.