Police make 2 arrests during Toronto protest over OSAP changes

Police say they made two arrests at the tail end of a raucous protest at the Ontario legislature, where hundreds of students were protesting the Ford government’s sweeping changes to OSAP.

Chants of “hands off our education,” “hands off our OSAP” and “Doug Ford has got to go” rang out in front of Queen’s Park from students who said they will no longer be able to afford post-secondary education.

The crowd began to build around midday, swelling to hundreds standing on muddy lawns in front of a makeshift stage, holding placards and chanting.

“Students are being asked to pay even more in tuition,” Omar Mousa from the Canadian Federation of Students–Ontario told the crowd, to cries of “shame” from the protestors.

“These decisions are forcing decisions deeply into debt simply for trying to access education, which we all know is a basic human right … we know they will make an already difficult system and situation even harder for students across this province.”

As the protest wound down, a few scuffles broke out, and tens of police officers were deployed to the scene.

A Toronto police spokesperson initially told Global News they made “several” arrests and could not offer more information.

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They later clarified two people had been arrested and charged relating to mischief, assaulting a police officer and obstructing police.

“I can confirm that there have been several arrests,” they originally said. “Information is still coming in.”

One of the statues at Queen’s Park was also defaced with graffiti about OSAP and the Ford government.

The protest stems from changes the government announced in February, when it unveiled new funding for colleges and universities, unfroze tuition and changed how student finance operates.

The latter change is the one that has attracted the most energy, shifting public funding for students from loans to grants.

The existing proportion of OSAP was about 85 per cent grants to 15 per cent loans, the government said, but starting this fall, students will receive a maximum of 25 per cent of their OSAP funding as grants.

Premier Doug Ford has said shifting from loans to grants would make students “accountable” for the money they take from the government, referencing alleged misuse of student finance.

“You are taking tax dollars and you have to be held accountable when you take tax dollars,” he said. “It’s not a freebie anymore. Money doesn’t grow on trees.”

Cyrielle Ngeleka, also with the student federation, said funding education was the government’s responsibility.

“It is not our burden to carry,” she told the rally. “The government (is) deliberately leaving 350,000 students out of the conversation. Where students are excluded from decisions about our own education system, it sends a very clear message about whose government the government is willing to listen to.”

The Ministry of Colleges, Universities, Research Excellence and Security insists that, despite the premier’s comments, the move to loans is necessary to ensure the financial stability of the program.

In 2024, they said, there were 862 potential investigations for fraud across all OSAP grants and loans. The figure was 902 for 2025. The ministry would not confirm how many of those reports actually found fraud or the total dollar value of the alleged fraud.

Opposition parties have pushed back against the changes, saying the government is harming people’s prospects for post-secondary education.

The Ontario NDP said its “Save OSAP” campaign had seen 30,000 sign-ups and 30,000 emails sent to the offices of Progressive Conservative MPPs. They said 700 calls had been made during a phone blitz.

Toronto police said they could not provide an official estimate on the size the protest.