Spicer held a BA in Modern Languages (French and Spanish) from Victoria College, University of Toronto (1956); the Diplôme en relations internationales from l'Institut d'Études Politiques (SciencesPo), Paris (1958); and a PhD in Political Science (thesis: Canada's international aid and development program) from the University of Toronto (1961).
[1] During his tenure as commissioner, Spicer dealt with many tensions between English- and French-speaking Canada, notably a potentially nation-breaking 1976 crisis, when many English-Canadian pilots threatened to block the Montreal Olympics over the use of French in air traffic control.
His approach was essentially diplomatic, but he used a mixture of threatened public denunciation and trademark humor to promote solutions.
During his tenure, he promoted Canadian TV programming, support for artists, respect for consumers, and telephone competition.
[2] In November 1990, in the midst of the national unity crisis caused by the collapse of the Meech Lake Accord several months earlier, he took an eight-month leave from his duties at the CRTC at the request of Prime Minister Brian Mulroney to chair the Citizen's Forum on National Unity, known colloquially as the "Spicer Commission".
From 1996 to 2000, Spicer worked for Ernst & Young Canada in Paris, promoting the Internet to a then-skeptical French establishment.