Identity area
Type of entity
Person
Authorized form of name
Oppenheim, Jonathan
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Standardized form(s) of name according to other rules
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Description area
Dates of existence
[20--]
History
Jonathan Oppenheim is a graduate of the Physics Department at the University of British Columbia. He is a professor of Physics at University College London. As a student, Oppenheim was a member of APEC Alert, a grassroots group formed at UBC of students, former students, faculty, staff, and others opposed to APEC (the Asia Pacific Economic Summit) on the UBC campus and the entire APEC agenda. Oppenheim organized and carried out APEC Alert's three phases of resistance to APEC. "Refuse APEC" ran to November 17. "Summit Under Siege" began November 17 with the erection of a tent city on the lawn to the west of the Student Union Building (SUB). Finally, "Crash the Summit" began November 25, which UBC would welcome APEC. In the early afternoon of November 25, protesters and police began to clash in the afternoon. Among the various actions on the UBC campus that day, protesters, including Jonathan Oppenheim, broke through a police barricade at Gate 3 near the School of Theology. He was subsequently arrested. Oppenheim was party to the legal actions launched in the days and weeks following the APEC Leader's meeting at UBC, alleging that he had been wrongfully arrested and police used that unnecessary force during his arrest. Oppenheim chose to represent himself at the PCC hearings and was a vocal critic of the process, insisting that it could have no lasting effect due to its inability to call then Prime Minister Jean Chretien to account for decisions made in and around the protests at UBC. In the end, frustrated by what he saw as the corruption of the process, Oppenheim resigned from the PCC proceedings on February 25, 2000.