On March 4th, the Trent Central Student Association (TCSA) and Trent students hosted a rally outside Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) for Peterborough-Kawartha, Dave Smith’s office to protest proposed changes to Ontario Student Assistance Program (OSAP). The rally saw dozens of students along Chemong Road with their signs, loudspeakers, and chants ready and willing to shout as loud as necessary to win the fight against OSAP reconfiguration. 

The restructuring proposed by the Conservative government Doug Ford would see a drastic reduction of grants given through the OSAP program, which previously provided students with up to 85% of their financial aid in non-repayable grants and as little as 15% in loans. Under the new model, that ratio would flip: grants would be capped at 25%, while loans would account for at least 75% of the total aid. This change would significantly harm student bodies throughout Ontario, a large portion of which rely on aid as tuition prices become untenable for low-income students and those supported by their families.

The OSAP changes come in conjunction with a proposed 2% increase to post-secondary institution tuition per year for the next three years. After the three year increase, post-secondary institutions will then be eligible to increase their tuition by either the average three-year inflation or another 2% increase depending on which is the lower amount. 

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Arthur spoke with Trent student Madeline Parkhill, who explained how the new OSAP system could affect her and her friends. 

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“School is already incredibly expensive without OSAP being cut, [and the cost of] tuition is also going up,” she explained. “I have disability OSAP. I’m already using a lot of loans, and now I’m going to have to use even more.” 

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“I have friends who might not even be able to afford university, friends who are considering dropping out because they can no longer afford education and cannot take on the burden of further loans,” Madeline continued.  

The rally saw support from several Peterborough leftist and labour groups, including the Revolutionary Communist Party, the International Socialists, and the Peterborough District Labour council. 

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James Summerfeldt-Parker—a first-year Trent student and member of the Revolutionary Communist Party—spoke in support of a one-day student strike at the Trent campus and other next steps he wants to see in local organizing.

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“We’ve been organizing since last week, talking to students on campus; almost every student we’ve talked to wants to fight back,” James explained. 

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“What we have found is that students want to fight back, but students have questions about how they can fight back. What we have been saying is that CFS and the TCSA here on campus need to start launching a campaign for how we are going to escalate this.” 

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James continued: “They need to have the end goal of a one-day student strike across the province. In 2012, Quebec students went out and they shut down the campuses across the province. They won, and they beat tuition hikes. That’s what we need to be doing. That’s a way to make it so Doug Ford can’t ignore students' voices anymore.” 

At their most recent SAGM, the TCSA provided reasons for not initially supporting a campus-wide student strike. They explained that the academic and legal risks to students were too great and that a campus-wide strike would be their last resort.

Arthur also spoke to Vice President of Student Health and Wellness, Kyra Myderwyk, regarding the calls for a student strike. 

“I know we’ve had students talking about the potential for a student strike. We want to make sure the safeguards are in place for them to be able to do that in a safe and effective way.” 

“We’ve had conversations about Trent's freedom of speech policy,” continued Myderwyk. “The provost sent out an email about professors accommodating student absences today. We want to look at how we can continue to make that more long term, which is conversations that are being had with the senate and with Trent administration.” 

“We’re also working with local levy groups who are affected by Bill 33, the Trent Graduate Student Association, the Trent Durham Student Association, and other student unions across Ontario to map out what those next steps look like.”

When asked if the TCSA had changed their previous statement on student strikes, Myderwyk explained concerns the Association had.

“What we’ve seen in the past is that student strikes in Ontario have not been successful. They’ve actually ended up with universities suing students, suing student unions, suing the leaders of [those] movements, and a lot of those students ended up losing their positions in those schools. We saw that with the Palestine protests happening two years ago,” said Myderwyk.

“At this point, we don’t feel that it would be safe for students to engage in a student strike, or that there would be enough momentum at Trent to have enough people to walk out to allow it to be safe.”

Arthur also spoke to retired trade unionist and International Socialist of Peterborough—Nogojiwanong organizer, Peter Vostch, who attended to show support for the students fighting back against Doug Ford. 

“I think people don’t feel the confidence to take on this Tory government. With the destruction of our college system, education is in shambles, public education and grade schools are in shambles. Yet we don’t feel the confidence to actually go after this government as we did a generation ago. I’m hoping students lead us the way they have before,” explained Vostch.

Vostch continued: “People don’t have the confidence to take on Ford, and I’m so keen to see the students saying, ‘Yes, we're going to take on Ford.’ It makes us feel like we can fight this Tory government. We can fight together to stop privatization and to support fully funded OSAP.” 

Despite receiving support from various groups around Peterborough and a cacophony of honks from community members driving down Chemong Road, the rally outside Dave Smith’s office did not lead to any dialogue with the MPP himself.

Myderwyk, provided insight into an attempted conversation with him: “Unfortunately, Dave Smith did not want to talk to the students who went in to try and speak to him.”

“Previously, Dave Smith has not been receptive to communicating with us in any way. We had a meeting in the summer and he eventually told us that we weren’t going to say anything to change his mind, and that our opinions weren’t really valuable as student leaders,” she added. 

When asked if the TCSA is planning any next steps in organizing against the OSAP slashes, Myderwyk explained: “We’re continuing to coordinate with the CFS and follow their lead. CFS Ontario is beginning to have conversations at the provincial government level.” 

“We’re also planning another protest at the end of March. We’re hoping to do a Bill 33 and Hands off our OSAP! Joint rally outside Dave Smith's office again. I know some high school students are walking out next week at their high schools, so we’re going to look at how we can support them.” 

“I think [Doug Ford] just needs to not fuck with the money,” said Nevaeh Ann Dixon, a student protesting the OSAP reform. “Especially since he's never gone to school, or he dropped out—he doesn’t know what we have to experience to try and fight our way through this and get our education.”