Students protest cuts to OSAP grants; arrests made at Queen’s Park rally
· Toronto Sun
Hundreds of Ontario post-secondary students and supporters took to the lawn of the legislature Wednesday, with some tense moments and at least two arrests, to protest cuts to financial assistance grants.
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Colleges and Universities Minister Nolan Quinn announced last month that the province is giving the post-secondary institutions a long-sought funding boost, while also lifting a seven-year tuition fee freeze and drastically scaling back Ontario Student Assistance Program grants in favour of loans.
Canadian Federation of Students’ Ontario chairperson Cyrielle Ngeleka said it will leave many students with high debt loads during a cost-of-living crisis.
“Rent is skyrocketing, groceries are becoming unaffordable, and students are working more hours just to stay enrolled,” she said.
“In a moment like this, the last thing students need is for the cost of education itself to rise. Education should be a pathway out of precarity, not another bill students are expected to absorb.”
Toronto police said two arrests were made at the protest, for mischief and assaulting and obstructing police. A statue of George Brown was left defaced with slogans against Premier Doug Ford, including a large one in what appeared to be red spray paint using an obscenity.
Tense moments followed as protesters shouted at Toronto police officers and legislative protective security officers who lined barricades in front of the building, but most ultimately dispersed without further confrontation.
Earlier, Toronto Metropolitan University urban and regional planning student Adam Picardo held aloft a sign reading, “My degree shouldn’t come with a mortgage.” He said the changes mean he will graduate with tens of thousands of dollars more in debt.
“Some days I’m (already) skipping meals,” Picardo said.
“I’m a mature student, so my parents aren’t paying for anything. This is all coming out of my pocket. So I don’t know how I’m going to do it. If I’m only in first year, I have second, third and fourth year as well. I can’t graduate with $50,000, $60,000 in debt.”
The current proportion of OSAP funding is about 85 per cent grants to 15 per cent loans, but starting this fall students will receive a maximum of 25 per cent of their OSAP funding as grants.
There will be other ways for students to receive support, Bianca Giacoboni, a spokesperson for Quinn, wrote in a statement.
“As we make historic investments in the post-secondary sector, including an additional $6.4 billion, our enhanced Student Access Guarantee will ensure qualified, low-income Ontario students continue to receive enough financial aid to cover tuition, books, and mandatory fees to offset the modest tuition increase,” she wrote.
“If OSAP funding does not cover these costs, the institution provides additional support.”
The government says OSAP funding was becoming “unsustainable,” with spending on grants alone at $1.7 billion last year, a 143 per cent increase since 2020. Until 2017, the grant and loan ratio was 15 to 85 per cent, with then-premier Kathleen Wynne flipping the ratio late in her tenure.
A large part of the increase to the OSAP budget was a more than 300 per cent increase from 2021 in the number of career college students applying, the government says. Quinn’s recently announced changes also include ending OSAP eligibility for career college students.
At the protest, first-year Toronto Metropolitan University journalism student Bethany Campbell said she may have to increase her part-time working hours to full-time so she doesn’t graduate with an impossible amount of debt, but then she couldn’t focus on her studies.
“I’m on OSAP for my entire tuition,” Campbell said.
“If my OSAP becomes mostly loans, I’ll be taking on almost $80,000 just to finish my four-year program. I’m from a low-income family, I don’t have money to fall back on. If I don’t work a full-time job while doing my studies, I’m going to either be in debt for the rest of my life or I’m going to have to drop out of school.”
— With files from Liam Casey.