As far as I know, having secondary school diploma or not, he will need to OAC(Ontario Academic Course) marks for his application to be considered by any university in the province. For your friend's case, he can still come to Canada first to enroll himself in a high-school to prepare for this exam and then based on this result, will apply for a University. Unless you've graduated from a post-secondary shcool and you're applying for a programm to which your major in university is relevant, you will have to pass this exam and have your OAC submitted. As an example, following is a link to one of the Ontario Universities, where you can find their admission requirements.