By

Mona, Sumi, and Jennifer

ECON 482

‘Be it resolved that Canada should not practice group profiling at the borders

given the reduction in border costs and the minimization of opportunities

in gaming’

Defined as: The use of specific characteristics, such as race, religion, or age, to make generalizations about a person, as whether he or she may be engaged in illegal activity.

1) Allows terrorists to ‘game’ the system.

2) Profiling is based on discrimination.

3) Requires high explicit and implicit costs.

To use randomization plus a modified pedigree as the method of border control.

We randomly select individuals to be tested both at the airport and at the drive through, physical border.

When we test our random individuals, we do not judge them on their race, religion, age, gender, or color of their skin.

Instead, we apply our testing strategies to search for irregular and suspicious travel patterns.

Based on their travel history and response to our probing, we can rank the individual based on the information they give us to support their irregular travel history.

This system of randomization, as compared to the current system, will not allow people to ‘game’ or cheat the system.

They will not have an opportunity to just pass through, looking ‘normal’, and a type 2 error (false-positive) will be minimized.

Terrorists have a higher chance to be caught with this system.

Lower possibility for type I (false-positives) and type II (false-negatives) errors when compared to the current system.

“Pedigree system that relies on the number of times a non-Canadian citizen successfully crosses the Canadian border in both directions without incurring an infraction either while in Canada or during the act of crossing the border” (DeVoretz, Seminar 17).

This combination system will not reject a “bad” looking civilian, and will not allow a “kind” looking terrorist in Canada.

This system of a “track record” would need to have the support of Canadians, both government and civilians, neighboring nations (United States and Mexico), and suitable technology.

DEBATE&

CONCLUSION