Christopher M. Spence is a retired former

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

educator, author, and former

Canadian football Canadian football, or simply football, is a Sports in Canada, sport in Canada in which two teams of 12 players each compete on a field long and wide, attempting to advance a Ball (gridiron football), pointed oval-shaped ball into the opposi ...

player. He is the former Director of Education of the

Toronto District School Board The Toronto District School Board (TDSB), formerly known as English-language Public District School Board No. 12 prior to 1999, is the English-language public-secular school board for Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The minority public-secular franco ...

and former Director of Education of the

Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board The Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board (HWDSB), formerly known as English-language Public District School Board No. 21 prior to 1999, is the public school board for the city of Hamilton. Established on January 1, 1998, via the amalgamatio ...

Biography

Born in

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

Jamaica Jamaica is an island country in the Caribbean Sea and the West Indies. At , it is the third-largest island—after Cuba and Hispaniola—of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean. Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, west of Hispaniola (the is ...

n parents, Spence has lived in Canada since he was three years old and received his early education in

Windsor, Ontario Windsor ( ) is a city in southwestern Ontario, Canada. It is situated on the south bank of the Detroit River directly across from the U.S city of Detroit, Detroit, Michigan. Geographically located within but administratively independent of Esse ...

. He received a

B.A. A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree ...

degree in

criminology Criminology (from Latin , 'accusation', and Ancient Greek , ''-logia'', from λόγος ''logos'', 'word, reason') is the interdisciplinary study of crime and deviant behaviour. Criminology is a multidisciplinary field in both the behaviou ...

from

Simon Fraser University Simon Fraser University (SFU) is a Public university, public research university in British Columbia, Canada. It maintains three campuses in Greater Vancouver, respectively located in Burnaby (main campus), Surrey, British Columbia, Surrey, and ...

in 1985. A

running back A running back (RB) is a member of the offensive backfield in gridiron football. The primary roles of a running back are to receive American football plays#Offensive terminology, handoffs from the quarterback to Rush (American football)#Offense ...

, he was drafted by the

BC Lions The BC Lions are a professional Canadian football team based in Vancouver, British Columbia. The Lions compete in the West Division (CFL), West Division of the Canadian Football League (CFL), and play their home games at BC Place. The Lions playe ...

in the third round of the 1985 CFL Draft, but his CFL career was ended in

1988 1988 was a crucial year in the early history of the Internet—it was the year of the first well-known computer virus, the Morris worm, 1988 Internet worm. The first permanent intercontinental Internet link was made between the United State ...

by an

Achilles tendon The Achilles tendon or heel cord, also known as the calcaneal tendon, is a tendon at the back of the lower leg, and is the thickest in the human body. It serves to attach the plantaris, gastrocnemius (calf) and soleus muscles to the calcane ...

injury. Spence received a B.Ed. degree from

York University York University (), also known as YorkU or simply YU), is a public university, public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is Canada's third-largest university, and it has approximately 53,500 students, 7,000 faculty and staff, ...

, an M.Ed. degree from the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public university, public research university whose main campus is located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park (Toronto), Queen's Park in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was founded by ...

in 1993, and an Ed.D. degree from the University of Toronto's

Ontario Institute for Studies in Education The Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto (OISE/UT) is Canada's only all-graduate institute of teaching, learning and research. It is located at 252 Bloor Street West on the university's St. George campus in ...

in 1996, which was later revoked due to plagiarism. He became Director of Education for the Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board on September 1, 2004, and served until July 2009, when he became the Director of Education for the Toronto District School Board.

Plagiarism, resignation and revoking of teaching license

On January 9, 2013, Spence apologized for plagiarizing several passages in an op-ed piece he wrote for the ''Toronto Star'' on extracurricular activities. The plagiarism was verified by the ''Stars

public editor A public editor is a position existing at some news publications; the person holding this position is responsible for supervising the implementation of proper journalism ethics within that publication. These responsibilities include identifying a ...

. Among the plagiarized material was this paragraph lifted from a 1989 opinion piece in ''The New York Times'': "We are challenged through sport to use our minds in guiding our bodies through the dimensions of time and space on the field of play. Learning the skills of sport provides opportunity to experience success." On January 10, 2013, Spence tendered his resignation as director effective immediately after additional incidents of plagiarism in earlier articles and blog entries were uncovered. Passages from his 1996 Ed.D. dissertation were also revealed to have been copied from other sources without attribution: sentences, paragraphs, whole pages were meticulously edited so as to obscure his plagiarism. On June 20, 2017, the

investigated the allegations, found him guilty of academic dishonesty, and rescinded his degree. On December 20, 2016, the

Ontario College of Teachers The Ontario College of Teachers (OCT; ) is the regulatory college for the teaching profession in Ontario and is the largest self-regulatory body in Canada. It was established on 20 May 1997. The college's mandate is to license, govern and regulat ...

announced that Spence's teaching license had been revoked as a result of the findings of the investigation. In 2018, Spence lost his fight to keep his Ed.D. The appeals tribunal stated that the "nature and extent f plagiarismfound in Spence's thesis is a very serious offence." The matter, however, is not yet settled. His lawyer, Darryl Singer, wrote in an email that Spence intends to seek judicial review of the decision in Ontario divisional court. Spence successfully appealed the revocation of his teaching licence in 2018 on the grounds that his "'precarious' mental state was not adequately accounted for." A psychiatric report stated that Spence's ability to function had been affected by "depression and suicidal ideation related to the evaporation of his marriage and career."

Works

* ''Skin I'm in: Racism, Sports and Education'' (Fernwood Publishing Company, 2000, ) * ''On Time! On Task! On a Mission!'' (Fernwood Publishing Company, 2002, ).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Spence, Chris 1962 births BC Lions players Black Canadian players of Canadian football Black Canadian sportsmen Black Canadian non-fiction writers Canadian educators Canadian football running backs Canadian people of Jamaican descent English people of Jamaican descent English emigrants to Canada English players of Canadian football Living people Simon Fraser Red Leafs football players Simon Fraser University alumni Sportspeople from Toronto Canadian football people from Windsor, Ontario University of Toronto alumni York University alumni Academic scandals Writers from Toronto Writers from Windsor, Ontario 21st-century Canadian educators 21st-century Canadian non-fiction writers 20th-century Canadian sportsmen