An independent tribunal has found Chris Spence guilty of plagiarism and recommended that University of Toronto revoke his 1996 doctorate and expel the one-time education star.

In other words, “no more ‘Dr.’ Spence,” as lawyer Bernard Fishbein, chair of the disciplinary panel, put it in announcing the findings Tuesday.

The recommendations were issued swiftly after a day-long hearing at the university in which Provost counsel Robert Centa outlined “overwhelming” evidence of plagiarism in Spence’s thesis for his prestigious doctorate of education degree.

Centa presented the tribunal with 67 examples of passages — including one that was nine pages long — that were found to be the work of others who were not credited or cited in Spence’s dissertation.

“This is not close to the line, this is not a few random sentences in a 120-page thesis,” Centa told the hearing.

Instead, he said it’s a case of “paragraph after paragraph after paragraph, page after page after page in some instances, of text taken verbatim or nearly verbatim” without quotation marks, italics or anything else to indicate it was material from other sources.

Fishbein said the written decision outlining reasons will follow. Spence can appeal after that decision is released.

The damning evidence and the tribunal’s ensuing call for the most severe sanctions took place without Spence present, and amid the celebratory sounds of students gathering for convocation outside the building.

The panel’s recommendations to U of T’s Governing Council come more than four years after a stunning fall from grace for the former education director with the Toronto District School board in the wake of allegations that he had cribbed other writers’ work in newspaper articles including the Toronto Star, blogs and books without giving them credit.

In December, the Ontario College of Teachers imposed its most severe penalty on Spence when it stripped the 54-year-old of his teaching licence after he was found guilty of professional misconduct.

But Spence, who is currently living in Chicago and has said he is working on a youth mentoring program there, has mounted a campaign to fight back against the college, arguing that he has taken responsibility for his actions, that the penalty was “disproportionate” and that he wants to teach again.

Last month, in a half-hour online video interview with former TDSB chair Bruce Davis as a part of the “Let Spence Teach” campaign, Spence pledged to defend his U of T thesis and attributed the accusations of plagiarism to “careless, reckless, sloppy research.”

However, Spence’s chair was empty at the opening of the hearing Tuesday, even though four days had been booked to address the merits of the case following three years of delays over procedural issues from his various lawyers.

Last Friday, one of his lawyers was in divisional court arguing for a stay against the U of T proceedings, but was not successful.

On Tuesday, a different lawyer, Carol Shirtliff-Hinds, opened by requesting another postponement, arguing that she had concerns about her client’s mental state and that she was unable to get clear instruction from him.

After being pressed by Fishbein to find out where he was, she returned and told the panel her client was in Chicago and had reported having an anxiety attack the previous day.

Her request for a postponement was denied and Shirtliff-Hinds withdrew from the proceedings saying she couldn’t remain given her “ethical position.”

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

Evidence presented by Centa went beyond the alleged examples of plagiarism. He also argued that Spence’s actions were deliberate because he “edited the plagiarized text to mask the fact he was plagiarizing.”

He cited passages where American spellings and phrases were changed to Canadian versions and text was personalized so it appeared to reflect Spence’s own observations and experience.

His only witness was Luc De Nil, vice-dean of students with the school of graduate studies. Asked if the doctorate of education would have been granted to Spence if these issues had been brought to his office back in early 1996, he said “no, it definitely would not.”