Course Description
This course examines Canadian border services, security, and customs. Topics will include an analysis of the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) as a federal policing agency; enabling legislation (e.g. Customs Act, IRPA, Criminal Code); primary and secondary inspection tactics and interviewing skills; seizure, detention, personal search powers, and arrest; commercial and personal importations; concealment tactics; human behavioural analysis; use of force options for border purposes; report writing and intelligence collection; and current issues in Canadian border security.
Course Content
1. Introduction to Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) and Border Service Officers (BSOs)
- What is a border?
- Legacy agencies (CCRA, CIC, and CFIA)
- Canada Border Services Agency
- What is a port of entry? Air, land, sea, mail, and warehouses
- BSO training
- BSO role
- BSO special teams, promotion
- CBSA interoperability
2. Customs Act, IRPA, Criminal Code (enabling legislation)
- Customs Act powers
- IRPA powers
- Criminal Code powers
- Canadian citizenship, permanent residents, temporary residents
- Refugee determination system
- Inadmissible categories
- People at risk categories (e.g. refugees, victims of trafficking in persons)
- Status documents and identification requirements
3. Primary Inspection and Interviewing Skills
- Primary questioning
- Referrals and mandatory referrals
- Integrated Primary Inspection Line (IPIL)
- Lookouts
- FOSS immigration database
- Primary inspection of food, plants, and animals
- Immigration primary questions
4. Secondary Inspection and Interviewing Skills
- Secondary examinations
- Secondary enforcement actions
- Secondary questioning
- Prohibited and other government department (OGD) regulated goods
- Controlled drugs and substances
- Examination of personal goods
- Food, plant, and animal risk assessments
- Immigration enforcement
5. Seizure, Detention, Personal Search Actions and Arrest
- Search and seizure powers
- Arrest and detention powers
- s. 98 personal searches
- Officer options
- Involvement of third-party agencies
6. Commercial and Personal Importations
- Duties and taxes
- Personal exemptions
- Regulating alcohol and tobacco importations
- Vehicle and other special importations
7. Concealment Tactics and Detection
- Vehicle concealment tactics
- Large vehicle concealment tactics (buses, airplanes, ships, etc.)
- Luggage and personal concealment tactics
- Detection tactics (frisks, progressive searches, detector dog service, ionizer, x-ray, etc.)
8. Human Behavioural Analysis
- Detecting deception in responses / personal behaviour
- Utilizing indicators in forming suspicion
- Questioning vs. interrogation to detect / confront deception
9. Use of Force Options and Firearms
- RCMP Incident Management / Intervention Model (IMIM)
- Use of force training scenarios and articulating appropriate responses
- Prohibited, restricted, and non-restricted firearms
- Firearms safety and licensing
10. Report Writing and Intelligence Collection
- Effective written communication
- Using the BSO notebook
- How to effectively collect and communicate intelligence information
11. Contemporary Issues in Border Security Work
- The emergence of risk calculation and analysis
- Technolgies employed at the border by BSOs
- The sociology of borders - resistance, No Borders / open borders, etc.
- Contemporary debates in border studies
- Borders as an area of research / analysis
Learning Activities
This course will employ a variety of instructional methods to accomplish its objectives, including some of the following:
- lectures
- class and small group discussions
- audio visual materials
- practical demonstrations / simulations
Means of Assessment
Evaluation will be based on course objectives and be carried out in accordance with the Douglas College Evaluation Policy. The instructor will provide a written course outline with specific evaluation criteria at the beginning of the semester. Evaluation will be based on some of the following:
- Participation
- Practical demonstrations / simulations
- Essays
- Exams and quizzes
- Take-home exams
- Research papers
An example of one possible evaluation scheme would be:
Participation (10%)
Primary Inspection Simulation (10%)
Mid-Term Exam (25%)
Concealment Practical Exam (10%)
Behavioural Analysis Practical Exam (10%)
Use of Force Options / Firearms Practical Exam (10%)
Final Exam (25%)
TOTAL: 100%
Learning Outcomes
At the conclusion of this course, successful students will be able to:
- Describe state governance efforts behind securing Canadian borders
- Locate and describe the role of border services officers and CBSA within the Canadian criminal justice system, including the interoperability of CBSA with other private and public policing and security services
- Analyze and explain contemporary debates regarding the geospatiality of modern borders
- Identify and describe key legislation enabling border services officers in performing their duties
- Critically analyze modern immigration control practices and technologies unfolding at Canadian ports of entry
- Articulate primary and secondary inspection practices, tactics, interview skills, and enforcement options
- Distinguish between commercial and personal importations and articulate how duties and taxes, personal exemptions, and trusted traveller / trader programmes are administered
- Utilize critical thinking skills and demonstrate close attention to detail in examining luggage, vehicles, and persons in countering concealment methods, human deception, and identifying contraband
- Identify and describe appropriate use of force options within the context of Canadian ports of entry
- Distinguish between types of firearms, identify illegal / prohibited weapons, and understand the role of border services officers in seizing weapons
- Critically analyze existing and potential future mechanisms for investigating allegations of border services officer misconduct and maintaining agency oversight
- Explain and demonstrate the importance of clear, concise, and professional report writing and intelligence information collection
- Discuss the complexities of modern border work in critically analyzing technologization, resistance to borders / migration controls, the criminalization of migration, contemporary border detention practices, etc.
Textbook Materials
This course will use a compilation of peer-reviewed academic articles, academic book chapters, government information sources (website pages, white papers, memoranda, corporate documents, documents released in ATIP requests, etc.), court judgements, and industry manuals and publications.
Textbooks will be updated periodically.
Typical examples are:
Muller, Benjamin J. 2010. Security, Risk and the Biometric State: Governing Borders and Bodies. New York, NY: Routledge.
Pratt, Anna. 2006. Securing Borders: Detention and Deportation in Canada. Vancouver, BC: UBC Press.
Sutcliffe, John B. and William P. Anderson. 2018. The Canada-US Border in the 21st Century. New York, NY: Routledge.