Post-secondary students across Ontario leave class in protest over education changes

Students at 17 post-secondary institutions across Ontario have begun walking out of their classes in protest of the Ford government’s changes to the Ontario Student Assistance Program (OSAP).

Under the previous Liberal government some students with family incomes of as much as $175,000 were eligible for OSAP grants but changes announced in January lowered the family income threshold down to $140,000.

Some low-income students were also eligible for grants for up to the full cost of tuition under the Liberal government but the changes introduced by the Ford government in January mean that some of that money will now be conveyed in the form of a loan.

The announcement of the changes to OSAP did coincide with the introduction of a 10 per cent province wide cut on the cost of tuition, though no additional provincial funds are being provided to universities to account for the loss in revenue.

“The 10 per cent tuition cut was a step in the right direction but without government funding we are actually going to see cuts to services, there are going to be cuts to faculty which means at the end of the day students will still get the short end of the stick because their working conditions are our learning conditions,” Canadian Federation of Students Chairperson for Ontario Nour Alideeb told CP24 during a walkout at the University of Toronto’s St. George campus on Wednesday.

In addition to the changes to OSAP, the Ford government also made several other changes to post-secondary education, including the elimination of a six-month interest free grace period for students and the introduction of a new policy that will make student fees paid to organizations, such as student unions and student newspapers, optional.

The Ford government has previously defended the changes to OSAP as a necessary fix for a system that had become “fiscally unsustainable” under the Liberals but Alideeb said that students have been adversely impacted and ‘can’t afford to continue on this route.”

“We need to see grants; not loans,” she said.

Opposition MPP’s partake in walkouts

CP24’s cameras captured dozens of students walking out of class at the University of Toronto’s St. George campus on Wednesday afternoon, as well as some staff.

There will also a number of opposition MPP’s in attendance.

“What the Ford government has done is download billions of dollars in debt onto our students and it is just not fair. Students deserve to be able to afford their education and he (Ford) is pricing them out,” Chris Glover, the NDP’s critic for colleges and universities, told CP24. “I think the students are doing the right thing here. The government has shown that if there is enough pressure they will listen to people and the students need to keep this up. There are students on 17 campuses walking out today. That is a strong sign of solidarity and they need to get more and more students standing up to this government and then they will listen.”

Minister defends changes

While the changes to OSAP have angered many student leaders, Minister of Training, Colleges and Universities Merrilee Fullerton told CP24 on Wednesday that her government “inherited a system from the previous government that was unsustainable.”

“They (students) have the right to respectfully protest and that is important but looking to the reforms that we made to post-secondary education they were very much a package,” she said. “ Looking at the tuition reduction of 10 per cent in all publicly assisted colleges and universities, that was unpreceded. As well as making sure that the OSAP funding was there for families and students who really needed it most, those earning $50,000 or less. Those families and students are receiving an increase from 76 to 82 per cent of the grant funding.”

The Canadian Federation for Students has said that the intent of the walkouts was to “demonstrate to the Ontario government that we will not tolerate their attacks on students.”

The walkouts took place at a number of Toronto-area post-secondary institutions, including Ryerson University, York University and all three University of Toronto campuses.