What to know

Thousands of students gathered at Queens Park Tuesday to protest Premier Doug Ford’s OSAP cuts at a second “Hands Off Our Education” rally.

Students iterate how harmful the cuts would be for young people who are entering university in the near future.

Protestors accuse Ford of not knowing what it’s like to experience poverty and struggle to pay tuition.

Students and educators gathered at Queen’s Park on Tuesday to protest the provincial government’s cuts to the Ontario Student Assistance Program (OSAP)

The Canadian Federation of Students-Ontario (CFSO) organized a second “Hands Off Our Education” rally aimed at fighting the recent tuition cap lift and changes to OSAP to favour loans over grants. The first CFSO organized rally was held on March 4.

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The rally took place at the Queen’s Park Legislative Assembly of Ontario around 1:30 p.m.

Despite this second rally having a lower turnout than the previous one due to midterm exams, students still showed up in droves carrying signs that read, “Hands off our campuses,” “Save OSAP. Fund education now,” and “Hands off our OSAP,” among others.

On-the-ground reactions from students

Now Toronto spoke with a handful of students who explained why they’re protesting the OSAP cuts.

Annika Zarzour, who is majoring in history at the University of Toronto, loves learning and said education shouldn’t be a luxury. 

“It’s incredibly important that people in poverty can access education, that international students can access education. We cannot better ourselves as a society if we’re constantly leaving people behind uneducated and further impoverishing them,” she explained.

Zarzour said she hopes to go to law school one day, but doesn’t know if she’ll be able to afford the program. She had a pointed message for Ford:

“I think you are a dirty, dirty grifter, and you can f**k yourself.”

Garisan Sarvananthan, who also goes to UofT and wants to do his master’s degree in occupational therapy, said he grew up in poverty. His father relies on the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP), which Ford has also been trying to roll back.

“I’m a kid who grew up in poverty. It’s been so hard for me to just keep my head above the water, and I was nice enough to experience the OSAP system. I couldn’t have gotten my bachelor’s degree without OSAP.”

For Sarvananthan, attending the rally wasn’t about himself. He said he was there for the young people who are about to go to university because “the youth is our future.”

“We have to protect our youth. We have to protect the right to get an education. And on top of that, student debt is so bad for the economy. We’re going to see so many delays in home ownership. We’re going to see people starting families later, if they even start a family, life is just about to get so much harder.”

He points his rage directly at Ford, accusing the premier of having been “handed everything on a silver platter” and not knowing what it’s like to struggle.

“Screw you. You’re a douchebag. You are so privileged you didn’t even go to school. You’ve had a silver spoon your entire life, and you want to tell us that we’re taking basket weaving courses.” he said. “You’re defunding health care, you’re defunding everything, and you haven’t accomplished anything in your entire life. F**k you.”

Ford recently made disparaging remarks towards the liberal arts and humanities, calling out students for pursuing “basket weaving courses” and urging them to “invest in your future, into in-demand jobs.”