Students rally in St. Catharines, at Queen’s Park protesting Ford’s OSAP changes

Disgruntled students gathered by the hundreds outside Ontario’s legislature Wednesday, to protest cuts to financial assistance grants.

They are upset about the Ford government’s decision to allow tuition fee increases and to change Ontario Student Assistance Program (OSAP) grants to loans.

Organizers say the changes amount to a devastating blow to students, while the Ford government says they are necessary to ensure the financial stability of student support programs.

The student-led “hands off our education” campaign is pushing for a rollback of the Ford government changes to tuition and OSAP.

The demonstration was supported by opposition leaders.

“If you talk to young people anywhere in this province, if you actually take 5 minutes and listen to them and you’ll find out, they are struggling to feed themselves,” said Ontario NDP Leader Marit Stiles.

WATCH MORE: McMaster students rally in protest of Ford’s unpopular OSAP changes

“Putting more burden on students and their families is the wrong thing to do,” said Ontario Liberal House Leader John Fraser.

A similar protest was held in St. Catharines, with high school and university students walking out of class at noon and marching to NDP MPP Jennie Stevens’s office.

Some students say that they don’t have other avenues for post-secondary education outside of OSAP.

One student strongly advocated basket weaving as “the basis of humanity,” explaining that “art is who we are — it is who we are in our hearts and if I wanted to go into that, I should have the opportunity to do so.”

This was in response to a recent jab made by Premier Doug Ford at basket-weaving post-secondary courses, while defending the government’s new plan.

“You’re picking basket weaving courses, and there’s not too many baskets being sold out there,” said Ford.

Opposition to the changes have been growing since they were announced three weeks ago.

WATCH MORE: Ontario boosting post-secondary funding, lifting tuition freeze, altering OSAP loans

The changes include: the province ending the tuition freeze; allowing tuition to rise by 2 per cent a year for the next three years; and turning the OSAP program from grants into loans.

OSAP would see the funding formula change from 85 per cent grants and 15 per cent loans, to 25 per cent grants and 75 per cent loans.

CHCH News asked the Ford government about the demonstrators criticisms, who replied in a statement which said, “…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.”

The Colleges and Universities Minister Bianca Giacoboni said, “…our government is aligning Ontario’s student financial support framework with other jurisdictions across Canada.”

A spokesperson for the colleges and universities minister shared numbers which compared how Ontario’s new plan compares to how other provinces support students — the new format closer matches western provinces, but not Atlantic.

The rally at Queen’s Park got tense in the late afternoon, with dozens of police officers lining up to defend the Legislature’s entrance.

Toronto police told CHCH News that two people were arrested for mischief, assault of a police officer and for obstructing police.

WATCH MORE: Students and critics urge Ford government to reverse OSAP changes