Dozens of students and union members gathered on Feb. 4 at the Centennial Flame on Parliament Hill to protest the provincial government’s recent changes to the Ontario Student Assistance Program (OSAP).
The protest is one of many that have been taking place across the province since the provincial government announced a 10 per cent tuition cut and the cancelling of the free-tuition program introduced by the former Liberal government in 2017.
“I’m here because without OSAP, without the help of the government, I wouldn’t be able to go to school,” said Olivia Galloway, one of the attendees at the rally. “Almost everyone I know is affected by this.”
Gaelen Kirby, a Carleton University student, has started an online petition to submit to the provincial government.
As of publication, the petition has received 242,276 of the 300,000 goal.
Molly Boley, a second-year student at Carleton, said one of the reasons she is protesting the policy changes is that many of her friends rely on OSAP in order to be able to pursue a post-secondary education.
“I think it’s completely unfair that my bright, intelligent friends have this barrier that is going to be imposed back on them, and they won’t be able to return to school next year if these cuts are put into place,” she said.
Boley said the promised decrease in tuition is not enough to make up for the cuts to OSAP.
“I think it was very politically-poised like that, to be able to make people think that ‘Oh okay, maybe he’s doing something for students before turning everything around,’” she said.“I just want the government to know that students are not complacent, and we are intelligent, we can see through what they’re doing.”
Boley said the tuition cut she would receive personally wouldn’t compensate for the OSAP cut.
“I will still end up paying more money, even despite the 10 per cent decrease, without the OSAP that I need to pay my tuition,” she said.
Another change the provincial government announced is that it will be removing a previous policy which gave recently-graduated students a six-month grace period before beginning to see interest on their loan.
“[It] is absolutely ridiculous,” Boley said. “Hardly any students have a full-time job that they can afford to pay that back after just finishing four or five years of their degree.”
Niall Hingston, a third-year student at Carleton who attended the rally, said that he hopes these protests make the provincial government rethink its policy changes concerning post-secondary education.
“I’m hoping that it’s going to make the Ford party see some sense, and make them realize what they’re doing is not actually helping. I’m hoping that there will be enough backlash that they will decide to reverse these policies,” he said.
“I hope the Ford government does see that students are the future of this province and of this country—and that by hurting our education, they’re hurting the future of this province and of Canada.”
Photo by Leila El Shennawy
