Arrests made at Toronto demonstration against changes to OSAP

Hundreds of students gathered outside Queen’s Park on Wednesday to protest Ontario’s changes to tuition and student loan programs.

Two people were arrested after a student protest at Queen’s Park got heated Wednesday afternoon

Thousands of students gathered outside the provincial legislature Wednesday to voice opposition to changes to Ontario’s student loans program.

Students carried placards and cheered “hands off our education.” Some also chanted “no cuts, no fees” and “free education now,” voicing anger over recent changes to the Ontario Student Assistance Program (OSAP).

Some also used the F-word to reference Premier Doug Ford in chants.

As the demonstration was wrapping up, sirens could be heard screaming up University Avenue towards Queen’s Park.

Students who were on-site said they saw one person climb atop a statue and use red spray-paint to write “F___ Ford.” Students said that person was then pulled off the statue and taken away by police.

Things then got heated and officers formed a line between the protesters and the legislature.

Toronto police confirmed two arrests were made and several charges laid, including mischief, assaulting police and obstructing police.

The arrests capped off what had otherwise been a loud, but uneventful demonstration.

Students worry changes will make education inaccessible

The provincial government announced several weeks ago that it was boosting funding to colleges and universities by billions of dollars while also lifting a tuition freeze that had been in place for seven years and slashing grants offered through OSAP.

Ford has defended the move, saying it was necessary to keep universities and colleges sustainable and to avoid closures.

Students at the protest said the changes will make it more difficult to finance their post-secondary plans.

Antoine Tran, who’s in his final year of high school, said he came out to protest today because the changes to OSAP mean it will be tougher for him to afford university next year.

“I believe these funds would definitely help me a lot, and especially the other people who are low income who can’t really afford university,” Tran said.

The move will mean the proportion of student assistance given as grants will shift from 85 per cent to 25 per cent, with the rest being given as loans. It restores a ration the previous Liberal government kept in place for years before flipping it in 2017, shortly before they were defeated.

“The Ford government’s decision to open the floodgates to tuition increases and the decimation of OSAP will destroy what’s left of education in Ontario,” the Central Student Association – one of the groups protesting the changes – said in a statement.

The office of Minister of Colleges, Universities, Research Excellence and Security Nolan Quinn responded to the protest, saying the government’s decision on OSAP brings Ontario’s student loan program in line with other jurisdictions across Canada.

“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,” Quinn’s press secretary, Bianca Giacoboni, said in an email.

Giacoboni pointed out the province’s Student Access Guarantee will provide low-income students who qualify with enough financial aid to cover tuition, books, and mandatory fees to offset tuition increases.

Separately Wednesday, some students in York Region staged a walkout from classrooms to protest the government’s changes to OSAP. Students in Durham Region held a walkout over the changes on Tuesday.

With files from The Canadian Press