Sea of red at McMaster University as students protest changes to OSAP

Students at McMaster University walked out Thursday over OSAP changes they say will leave them deeper in debt.

There was a sea of red on McMaster’s campus, and not just from poppies.

Students wore red squares as they marched to protest recent cuts to the Ontario Student Assistance Program.

The squares were worn across the province as a symbol of solidarity, with over 40 Ontario campuses protesting the cuts.

In February, Ontario announced the maximum grant share of provincial OSAP would drop from 85 to 25 per cent.

The change means more money to pay back for Ontario students, and McMaster students say they’re feeling the impact.

“With the OSAP cuts it kind of changed between night and day,” said one student. “Basically one day I woke up and saw the cuts and was like wow, I’m actually going to have a lot of student debt.”

“I actually am receiving significantly less by a couple thousand,” another said. “I was working a lot last year to kind of cover beyond what OSAP could provide, but I’m also working another job on top of it this year just to try and bridge that gap between being able to afford university and continue to keep living, but it’s been difficult.”

Another student says their funding was almost cut in half.

On Thursday morning, the Canadian Federation of Students-Ontario issued several demands to the Ford government, including introducing a two per cent cap on international student tuition fees.

“We are asking this government to provide additional and adequate funding for Ontario’s public post-secondary education system to match the national average for per student funding, as well as provide additional funding and additional seats at Ontario’s public colleges and universities in all programs,” the federation said. “We are demanding that this government maintain a tuition freeze on domestic students’ tuition for the next strategic mandate agreement up to 2030.”

This afternoon, the provincial government issued a statement in response to the student day of action.

“As we have stated, the previous OSAP framework was no longer sustainable,” the statement reads in part. “Alongside numerous student financial aid programs like OLSG, our enhanced Student Access Guarantee will ensure qualified, low-income Ontario students continue to be supported.”

The government also highlighted its spending on Ontario colleges and universities, which it says is over $6 billion.

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