Colin was born in Montréal, Québec, where he did his undergraduate degree at McGill University, graduating in 1971. From there, he moved to the University of Washington in Seattle, where he did his graduate work (PhD 1975), focusing on memory, and a postdoc, focusing on individual differences in cognition. He then moved to the University of Toronto at Scarborough where he spent a quarter century as a professor. In 2003, he moved to the University of Waterloo as a professor. He has served as Chair of his department at both institutions.