Students across 15 post-secondary campuses in Ontario walked out Thursday to protest the Ford government’s revoking of students’ Ontario Student Assistance Program (OSAP) funding, hikes to tuition fees and allegations of government interference in university and college affairs.
Thousands of students brandishing signs that state “Hands Off Our Education!” and “Hands Off Our OSAP!” marched across a swath of campuses, including the University of Toronto and the University of Ottawa, to draw attention to what the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS) is calling an “attack on education” by Premier Doug Ford and his government.
“Education is a right and students are prepared to fight for it,” said Leah St. Germain, an OCAD University student with the CFS Ontario at Queen’s Park Thursday.
“We are the ones consistently bearing the brunt of your failure. And we are going to continue to use every tactic in our playbook to apply pressure,” she said. “We are not stopping until we see a publicly-funded system that leaves no one behind.”
Cyrielle Ngeleka, CFS Ontario chairperson, said in a news release that the Ford government continues to “evade accountability” while schools go underfunded and students are plunged into debt due to the gutting of OSAP.
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In February, the Ford government announced it would significantly cut student assistance grants due to “unsustainable” costs. Beginning Aug. 1, the proportion of non-repayable grants a student can receive from OSAP was reduced from 85 per cent to a 25 per cent maximum, with the rest in loans.
A seven-year freeze on tuition was also lifted, allowing colleges and universities to raise tuition by up to two per cent per year for the next three years.
Many students are reporting they are now deeply burdened by debt due to the massive cuts to OSAP grants as economic uncertainty buoyed by tariffs and an unstable geopolitical environment has resulted in rising costs.
The CFS said students are demanding OSAP comes in grants, not loans, that interest is removed, that tuition costs are curbed and that the government ends any involvement in admissions, student fees and research security plans.
The protests have sprung up at a moment when the Ford government is facing mounting questions around the province’s freeze of OSAP for students attending private career colleges, as the government is investigating some schools for alleged fraudulent activity.
Data obtained by the Canadian Press in June found that between the 2023-24 and 2024-25 academic years, the province spent $465 million more on OSAP grants, and 95 per cent of that went to private career college students.
The Ford government has said the OSAP freeze was necessary as it investigates the alleged fraud. Critics have accused the province of destroying the futures of the private career college students who have a clean record and have had their studies upended without their expected OSAP payments.
Changing OSAP over to mostly loans was necessary, as the program was “unsustainable,” reaching $4.1 billion per year, Ford told Global News in February.
The Ford government has invested $6.4 billion into the province’s college and universities, said Bianca Giacoboni, a spokesperson for the office of Nolan Quinn, the Minister of Colleges and Universities.
“Students receive top tier education at less cost than comparable post-secondary institutions in the United States,” she said. The previous OSAP framework was “no longer sustainable,” and qualified low-income Ontario students are being supported, they said. The government’s “tuition framework,” she said, is “one of the lowest increase rates in the country.”
NDP Leader Marit Stiles was quick to stand with students Thursday, stating in a press release that Ford “has spent this year attacking students.”
She said the NDP called on Ford to provide immediate relief to students who need financial help. “He and his government refused,” she said. “Now, the Premier has no choice but to hear their voices.”
© 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
