Students across the province are protesting recent changes to the Ontario Student Assistance Program (OSAP) — the post-secondary financial aid system will go from a majority grant structure to a majority loan structure in the new school year.
Hundreds of students rallied outside Queen’s Park in Toronto, while hundreds more walked out of class in Waterloo in protest. Earlier this week, high school students in Oshawa also led a walkout.
More than 200 people, including high school and university students, protested in St. Catharines, Ont., outside Brock University and in front of local NDP MPP Jennie Stevens’ office, who was there to support them.
Toronto protesters chanted and banged drums in unison, calling for Premier Doug Ford and Colleges and University Minister Nolan Quinn to resign and take their “hands off” post-secondary education.
“No cuts, no fees, no corporate universities,” yelled Toronto demonstrators.
“We are distraught, but we are not willing to settle for the conditions that this government has manufactured,” said Omar Mousa with the Canadian Federation of Students–Ontario (CFS-Ontario) at the rally.
Education should not be another financial burden on students already facing insecurity with rising costs for food and rent, said Cyrielle Ngeleka with CFS-Ontario.
“Education should be a pathway out of precarity, not another bill students are expected to absorb,” she said, adding teachers, community workers and parents had also joined student protesters in Toronto.
Last month, Quinn announced a new $6.4-billion funding model over four years, which included an end to a years-long tuition freeze and the OSAP changes.
Students from over 20 schools across Durham Region held walkouts in protest of changes to the Ontario Student Assistance Program on Monday. CBC’s Christian D’Avino spoke to students who say the reductions to grant money put their futures in jeopardy.
Currently, students can receive a maximum of 85 per cent as grants — which do not have to be repaid — and a minimum of 15 per cent as loans that need to be paid back.
But in the new year, OSAP funding for eligible students will be reduced to a maximum of 25 per cent for grants, with funding for loans increased to a minimum of 75 per cent.
“Like so many young Ontario students, I feel disappointed and at a loss of control for what the Ford government has decided to do with OSAP,” University of Toronto student Naicey Portus told CBC Radio’s Metro Morning.
She said she’ll be among the crowds of students outside Queen’s Park at the “Hands Off Our Education!” protest.
On top of exams and assignments, Portus says she’ll now have to worry about money and working more to make up for the changes.
“This is affecting those who already have barriers that they’re facing, and so to make those walls even higher for those students is really disappointing to see,” she said.
Video captured by CBC News showed students and Toronto police clashing at the protest on Wednesday afternoon. At one point, a protester approaches and yells at an officer, only to be shoved back into the crowd.
Toronto police spokesperson Amy Davey said the rally had started off peaceful on Wednesday, but that there were two arrests in the afternoon for mischief, assault and obstruction of police.
Former OSAP model not sustainable: ministry
Changes to OSAP will help align the province with other financial aid programs in other parts of the country and ensure Ontario’s program is available for generations to come, said Bianca Giacoboni, spokesperson for the Ministry of Colleges and Universities.
“The Premier and the Minister have been clear that, due to billions of dollars of pressure on the program from the federal government’s decision to remove grant eligibility from students at private career colleges, coupled with increased program uptake in recent years, the OSAP framework was no longer sustainable,” she said.
She said the province has also launched other financial support programs to cover tuition, books and other educational costs for thousands of students.
In the 2024-25 school year, Giacoboni said Ontario spent $1.7 billion on grants for 473,000 students. That cost went up to $2.7 billion in the 2025-26 school year, she said.
When asked during a CBC News interview about whether the protests will result in changes, Quinn said that he wanted to clarify that the program was not being cut and that it will continue to be available for eligible students in the fall.
He said the previous program was expected to hand out over $4 billion in grants by the 2028-29 school year. That’s a cost the auditor general said in 2018 would not be sustainable, after the previous OSAP structure was put into place by former Premier Kathleen Wynne in 2017.
“Not only is it the student invested into their post secondary, it’s also the taxpayer,” said Quinn.
“We want to ensure that the students are making smart decisions with some of the labour market needs that are very clearly articulated, not just in Ontario, but across Canada.”
He said there are resources available for students trying to decide on a career path that will ensure “tenfold” earnings compared to “their modest investment into their post-secondary.”
Students in ‘limbo’ due to OSAP uncertainty: professor
But the changes to OSAP aren’t that straight forward, said Danny Corral, assistant professor at the University of Toronto.
He said the program is funded by both the province and federal government, but the new cuts will only affect the provincial portion of OSAP.
Up to 60 per cent of OSAP funding comes from the federal government, according to Employment and Social Development Canada. That means OSAP changes will affect about 40 per cent of the funding that comes from the province.
London Morning7:572 local university students explain how OSAP changes will affect them
Students are rallying against Ford’s changes to OSAP, including cuts to OSAP and a reduction of grants. Western University students Brooklin Begg and Amrithaa Logeswaran told London Morning how this will affect their budgets and choice to pursue post-secondary education.
“Students are really in a state of limbo, so to speak, in terms of really understanding how this is exactly going to impact them,” said Corral.
He said the province has an aid estimator tool to help students see how much they might receive in grants versus loans, but that tool has yet to be updated since the announced changes.
The ministry of education has said that it will be updated sometime this spring.
“Hopefully these protests continue to demonstrate that students are stressed, students are angry … because of the real impact that these policy changes are going to have on their futures,” he said.
Corral encouraged students to keep pushing for answers and to stay on top of updates from the province in the months ahead.
Province ‘lit a match’ against students, families: Fraser
Putting more financial pressure on students and their families during an affordability crisis is the wrong thing to do, Ontario Liberal education critic John Fraser told CBC Toronto at the rally.
“It’s not just the government against students. It’s the government against families, and students are paying the price,” he said, adding the Ford government needs to reverse the OSAP changes and look at how to make higher education more accessible.
He said it’s been “a long, long time” since there was a crowd of hundreds protesting outside Queen’s Park.
“The government lit a match and it’s going to keep burning until they reverse the cuts,” Fraser said.
Opposition parties will be bringing the issue to a vote as soon as the Legislative Assembly resumes later this month, said Ontario NDP Leader Marit Stiles at the Queen’s Park rally.
She said they’ll be listening to students and demonstrators to guide the action they take.
“We fund post-secondary education at the lowest rate of any province in the country and our students, economy and industry are suffering because of it,” she said.
“This is not a partisan issue.”
Doug Ford inadvertently “starts a revolution” every time he “punches down” on students and workers, Ontario Public Service Employees Union president JP Hornick told the Toronto crowd.
“These attacks [by Ford] are deliberate. They hurt the most marginalized students,” they said.
Hornick said education is the “great leveler” that helps people get ahead no matter their socioeconomic background and urged for funding to be distributed equally among all students.
