From: [Office]
Sent: Tuesday, September 08, 2009 5:25 pm
To: CLC
Subject: FW Million dollar claims

Chris, do you know who this is?

—–Original Message—–
From: Michael Geist
Sent: Tuesday, September 08, 2009 1:30 PM
To: CLC
Subject: Million dollar claims
Chris,
About that million dollar claim….
1. I hold a Canada Research Chair at the Tier 2 level. The CRC is an
intense peer-reviewed process that requires nomination from a university (an individual cannot apply on their own). A CRC is a five year appointment (renewable once) at $100,000 per year. That isn’t money that comes directly to me. Under the CRC program, the money is paid to the university, which uses it to cover the salary of the chair
holder. My cv lists the CRC as $500,000 in 2008 (the year my CRC was
renewed for a second term), but that is payable to the university over
5 years.
2. The $1 million from 2003 is based on $500,000 for the first term of
my CRC covering 2003 – 2008. Another $500,000 is money that came from the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) and Ontario Innovation Trust (OIT). This is an infrastructure grant that was tied to the CRC. Under the CRC rules, first time applicants can also apply for an infrastructure grant that is jointly paid for by the federal government (CFI) and the Ontario govt (OIT). The money can only be used for infrastructure – not salaries or other similar costs. In this case, it was used to build the Canada Research Chair Laboratory in Law and Technology, a project jointly established by myself and Ian Kerr, a colleague who also has a CRC. It paid for construction costs and equipment. We had additional support from IBM and Entrust in building the lab, which has been used for a wide range of technology law projects.
That’s the money. Not a consulting contract or a big payday. Just a peer-reviewed grant that goes to the University to cover salary or went to pay for equipment used by students for a wide range of research purposes.
As for secret meetings, there were none. I participated in the Gatineau roundtable – you can read my remarks or listen to the audio (Graham Henderson was there too).
MG
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Professor Michael A. Geist
Canada Research Chair in Internet and E-commerce Law University of Ottawa, Faculty of Law