On March 4, the Brock University New Democrats and the Brock University Young Liberals crossed political lines to organize a bipartisan poster making event followed by a protest in front of Schmon Tower. The protest took a stand against the recent changes that the Ford government made to the Ontario Student Assistance Program (OSAP).
Under Doug Ford’s Conservative Party, the Ontario Provincial Government recently enacted a change to the funding structure of OSAP. The government reversed the percentage caps on the loan and grant portions of an OSAP funding package.
Prior to the changes, students could receive a maximum of 85 per cent grants and 15 per cent loans. The Ford government reversed this arrangement, so that students will now only receive a maximum of 25 per cent of funding in grants and a minimum of 75 per cent in loans beginning in the fall of 2026.
In response to these changes, university students across Ontario organized a protest on March 4.
The protest at Brock began with a poster making event at union station that ran from 10:20 a.m. until the protest time at 12 p.m. A group of around 30 to 40 students participated in the poster making event.
At the poster making event and subsequent protest, The Brock Press was able to interview several individuals.
Sydney, a second-year psychology student at Brock, expressed her frustration with the Ford government’s changes to OSAP:
“He’s taking an already very vulnerable demographic of students and he’s making it even harder for them to get an education. […] What he’s doing is allowing people who already have money to keep going into whatever it is that they want to do and he’s limiting the people who do not have that privilege. […] It just feels dirty. It feels dirty and cruel and intentional that the goal is to keep people in less privileged positions down and it just makes me so angry.”
OSAP cuts weren’t the only topic on students’ minds, as the recent staffing cuts made by the university were also a point of contention amongst the poster making crowd.
Alex, a Geography and English major in their second year, expressed their disapproval with the staff cuts Brock has been undertaking, stating that “it’s a poor decision by the university to be making those cuts […] the cuts that they are making are targeting predominantly female workers which I think is incredibly problematic.”
Alex also expressed concern over the replacement of those roles being non-unionized, with the cuts being predominantly on the union side of the staff.
The Brock Press was able to interview event organizer and President of the Brock University New Democrats (Brock NDP), Lauren Davidson. Additionally, another News Editor at The Brock Press, Anjelina Pathak, interviewed event organizer and President of the Brock Young Liberals (BUYL), Zayaan Ladhani.
When asked what drove her to organize the protest and poster making event, Davidson stated that “students of all backgrounds have been impacted by these OSAP cuts, and we just want to make sure that everyone has an equal opportunity to get an education.”
When asked about who the target of this protest was, Ladhani stated that students were their central focus.
“Brock has obtained a reputation for not having the most lively, if nonexistent, campus culture. I wanted to show students that there are many ways to get involved in campus life. […] To put a bow on it, it was to show students that Brock has a lively culture [and] has a voice and it can be as loud as a drum.”
Third year Concurrent Education student, Fabiana, expressed concern with the OSAP cuts.
“I rely on OSAP to be able to come to university,” said Fabiana.
Fabiana explained that OSAP helps to pay for their rent and tuition, especially as a student who lives away from home.
“Now I’m uncertain about the future and how I’ll be able to be at school,” Fabiana continued.
Students continued to express their anger through a multitude of different poster designs.
Maya, a first-year student in Linguistics, wrote on her poster “groceries aren’t luxuries” because, as she explained, of “the interview where Doug Ford mentioned that [students] were spending our OSAP money on luxury items.”
At 12 p.m., a procession of about 40 students led by Ladhani and Davidson exited Union Station by Issac’s Patio and walked out into a cloudless, bright and sunny day towards the Sir Issac Brock Statue in front of Schmon Tower.
Due to the protest, the on-campus bus stops were re-located to ensure the safety of all involved.
Once in place, the group of protesters grew to a number just slightly above 100 participants, mostly all of whom were carrying signs.
Before the protest began, the protestors lined up in front of a handful of journalists and photographers and were addressed by both Niagara Falls NDP MPP Wayne Gates and Brock Political Science Professor Stefan Dolgert.
In an interview with The Brock Press following the address and during the protest, Professor Dolgert stated that he “wanted to say how sorry we are as people of my generation […] your parents, your grandparents, they benefitted from education being a public good and now they are pulling up the ladder by which they climbed up, and it’s fundamentally unfair to students of this generation.”
Speaking on the Brock administration staffing cuts, Professor Dolgert stated that the two issues are “all part of the same thing: what Ford is doing, what the administration is doing here.” Professor Dolgert explained how cuts were made on the basis of “administrative rationality and efficiency without taking into account how [the cuts] affect students or how this was actually going to affect any of the academic units.”
The volume of the protest had risen significantly, with students chanting earnestly. Some chants included “we are Brock, stop the cuts,” “Badgers fight,” “hands off education,” “hands off layoffs,” “hands off admin” and “Badgers unite,” to name a few.
NDP MPP for Niagara Falls, Wayne Gates, told The Brock Press that he was pleased to see students standing up to Doug Ford and his government.
“Students today are suffering […] there’s not a lot of jobs around the community right now, they’re having troubles paying for their groceries, they’re having troubles paying for their rents and the last thing they need is cuts from this government,” said Gates.
Gates expressed pride in the bipartisan protest, noting the importance of the choice to have both groups “stand up, take on their own and cross party lines [Brock NDP and BUYL] to say this is wrong, this is continuously wrong, and we are going to make sure that Doug Ford changes his mind on cuts to OSAP.”
During the protest, both the Brock NDP and BUYL circulated a joint petition against the OSAP cuts that is planned to be sent to Queen’s Park to be presented before the legislature. In addition, Wayne Gates’ team also circulated a petition.
Apart from chants, students used a microphone to deliver speeches from atop the Sir Issac Brock statue to the hundred or so protestors below.
“When financial barriers stop talented students, like yourself, from accessing education, we are not saving money. We are just losing your potential. Students are not asking for handouts, we are asking for opportunities, the opportunity to live and the opportunity to build a strong future for our province — because investing in students today means investing in our economy tomorrow,” said one protestor by the name of Ahmed.
The phrase “basket weaving courses,” as coined by Ford, drew a lot of attention to protestors. One protestor, Michel Januszwska, stated that the “humanities and everything that society and its values are based off, they’re continuously being suppressed and viewed as something less than. […] These are not ‘basket weaving’ courses, these are things that build up and make society function. If we put different values on different types of education, then everything will crumble.”
Other protestors chanted “we deserve to make baskets if we want to, let kids make baskets!”
Nearing 1:30 p.m., the protest began to wind down History student Ethan Huffman told the Press that “you [Doug Ford] want to keep people poor so they cannot challenge the people who are in power. Those with money, those who benefit from nepotism, those suits in Toronto, they don’t know how important education is.”
Huffman stated that he was proud of the protest’s turn out, but he wished “more people would understand” that with all the “budget cuts happening there should be way more […] because this should not happen and it won’t happen if we all organize together and do a student strike.”
The spirit was certainly present amongst protesters, as it was amongst material handed out, including a pamphlet calling for the Canadian Federation of Students to organize a student strike.
At 1:40 p.m., the protest began dissipating, with some students remaining.