By Shaaranki Kulenthirarasa

Hundreds of students and community members from across Ontario gathered at Queen’s Park on March 4 to protest Doug Ford’s Provincial Government’s recent cuts to OSAP.  

On Feb. 12, the provincial government announced its decision to cut OSAP grants and increase domestic tuition by two per cent over the next three years. This is the first tuition increase since the province cut tuition by 10 per cent and froze it in 2019. 

The Ford government stated that the maximum OSAP grants a student can be eligible for would be reduced from 85 per cent to 25 per cent, with a minimum of 75 per cent of funding being loans. The annual funding to universities was also increased along with a $6.4 billion investment in the post-secondary sector, as previously reported by The Eyeopener.

The protest, organized by the Canadian Federation of Students Ontario (CFS-Ontario), saw high school, university and college students decry the government’s decision. The Queen’s Park rally was just one of several student actions that occurred on March 4, joining cohorts in Ottawa and Waterloo, Ont.

Towards the end of the protest near 3:00 p.m., police arrested an individual who allegedly spray painted a statue, leading to a confrontation between the protestors and the police officers. Another individual was arrested after allegedly spitting on a police officer according to a Toronto police news release. Both were released later that night.

An emailed statement to The Eye from a spokesperson for CFS-Ontario described police presence near the end of the protest as “heavy and disproportionate” and that it “resulted in the arrest of [the] two attendees.”

Students carried signs, many criticizing the Premier’s comments to avoid taking “basket-weaving courses” and chanted, “Hey hey, ho ho, Doug Ford’s got to go.”

“The financial burden is going to really increase for sure”

Ella Brigham, a second-year early childhood studies student at the University of Guelph-Humber said the Premier’s comments overlooked the importance of her field. 

“We’re educating the future, that’s my job. So for [Ford] to [tell us to] go into programs that matter, well there’s not going to be a future if these children aren’t being educated,” she said.

Brigham also expressed concerns about increased debt if the cuts to OSAP are not reversed. 

“I personally want to go to grad school, that’s four more years of education. The financial burden is going to really increase for sure,” she said. 

In an email statement to The Eye, press secretary for Nolan Quinn, Bianca Giacoboni said 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.”

“They also emphasized that the ‘enhanced’ Student Access Guarantee, the Ontario Learn and Stay Grant and the First Nations Resource and Development scholarship has aided thousands of students in covering the costs of tuition, books and mandatory fees,” the email read. 

Ava Bozzo, a second-year baking and pastry arts management student at George Brown College, echoed similar frustrations to Brigham.

“[Students] don’t know how they’re going to continue going to college and doing the stuff that they love because they can’t afford school already,” she said. 

The Ontario legislature has been on a three-month break since December 2025 and will return to Queen’s Park on March 23. However, Marit Stiles, the leader of the New Democratic Party (NDP) and John Fraser, the interim leader for Ontario’s Liberal party and MPP of Ottawa South, were in attendance at the rally.

“We’re educating the future, that’s my job”

Stiles emphasized the importance of coming together as a community to continue advocating against the cuts, saying student can get the government to “flip flop” on the decision. 

 “We won some big battles [such as] saving the Greenbelt, fighting for education workers when [the provincial government was] attacking them, but what it takes is everybody coming together,” she said. 

Fraser added that many students and community members have approached him to express how important it is for him to advocate against the cuts.

“We want [the Ontario government] to reverse the cuts, we want them to reverse the reliance on loans as opposed to grants. It’s unfair to change gears literally midstream. They have to fix it,” he said. 

Trudy Kuropatwa Trent, a third-year production and design student at TMU and a member of the Student Mobilization Committee (SMC), which advocates for free education, said students seem to understand the importance of acting fast. 

“We took the whole city block walking up here […] There’s a lot of support for students fighting against these OSAP cuts,” she said. 

Kuropatwa Trent, who is also president of the performance student union, said people were honking their vehicles in support of the students on their way to Queen’s Park.

Students were joined by other unions and organizations including the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) who held up signs and chanted with students. CUPE represents workers in several sectors including healthcare, emergency services, early learning and childcare, education and education.

Kerry Webb, the vice-president of CUPE Local 1022 in Belleville, Ont., described the cuts to OSAP as unfair.

“Children are struggling now to be able to survive and go to school with the high cost of food and education…they deserve to be supported fully by the government,” she said.  

Members of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU/SEFPO) also showed up, sharing their frustrations onstage. Their remarks were met with cheers by the crowd. 

OPSEU/SEFPO president JP Hornick said in a video posted to the union’s Instagram account, “the one thing that Doug Ford screws up every fricking time is that when he punches down on workers, when he punches down on students, he starts a revolution.” 

The CFS will be holding another protest outside Queen’s Park, in collaboration with CUPE and OPSEU/SEFPO on March 24 at 1:30 p.m. the day after the Ontario legislature returns to office. 

With files from Amira Benjamin