Hundreds of London high school students braved the rain in Victoria Park Wednesday, to protest provincial cuts to the Ontario Student Assistance Program (OSAP).
The protest follows the Ontario Government’s announcement earlier this month that it would rolled back its current policy of providing grants of up to 85 per cent to Ontario students.
The students will only receive up to 25 per cent of OSAP funds as grants, at least 75 per cent of that money as loans.
SAVE OSAP WALKOUT at Victoria Park (Credit: Adam Duffy/XFM News)
Some students said the cuts meant that they could impact on post-secondary planning and family economic conditions.
London Central Secondary School grade 12 student Madeline Glinoga (Credit: Emily Kim/XFM News)
“I’m now planning to go to Western (University) or somewhere that I can still live at home rather than going to a university where I’m going to have to pay for residence because of how expensive it is,” said Madeline Glinoga, London Central Secondary School Grade 12 student and organizer of the walk-out.
Families are struggling, said Calico Richard, another Grade 12 student and organizer from Central.
“Not only for me, for my sister, she goes to (University of) Waterloo, she’s doing theoretical physics. And she’s already signed up at Waterloo and now she’s going to struggle because of this,” Richard said.
Glinoga said she was happy that so many students came out.
“I did a Google form trying to survey how many people from my high school were going to be showing up but the turnout was actually much higher than I expected. So that was really great and I’m so happy that it went so well.”
London Central Secondary School grade 12 student Calico Richard (Credit: Emily Kim/XFM News)
H.B. Beal Secondary School grade 12 Rinn Jennings wore a simple red felt square on the chest – a symbol from the 2012 Quebec student protests after the government raised tuition in that province.
The red square (Credit: Emily Kim/XFM News)
“We’re taking that symbol from that movement and continuing it on to show that we’re still squarely in the red, we’re still trapped in this debt, and the fight for affordable education isn’t over yet,” said Jennings. “I feel incredibly proud of everyone that came out today to support this movement. And I’m just so overjoyed that this turned out so well.”
Some provincial politicians and city councillors also joined the walk-out.
“I don’t think they’ve realized, or maybe they have realized, how detrimental this is, not just to students and their families, but to broader communities,” said Ward 6 Coun. Sam Trosow.
Trosow said he wants the government to rescind their reallocation between grants and loans.
Ward 6 Councillor Sam Trosow (Credit: Emily Kim/XFM News)
Everyone who participated in this walk-out, regardless of whether they were speakers or students, demanded the government change its decision.
“I want to stop with these high amounts of loans. We need to go back to the way it was where it’s mostly grants because this is how it needs to be for people to be able to afford education to afford to even go to university,” said Richard.
Trosow added the government should listen to students first.
“Students are making it very clear that they want to be able to contribute to society, but they need a higher education to be able to do that,” said Trosow.
The students continued to chant in the rain to make sure their voices are heard.
