Rain or shine, Barrie area high school students are fighting for their future.
An estimated 200 or so students from Bear Creek Secondary School, Innisdale Secondary School, and Maple Ridge Secondary School flocked to Barrie-Innisfil MPP Andrea Khanjin's office in Barrie on Wednesday to protest recently announced cuts to grants from the Ontario Student Assistance Program (OSAP).
Students marched alongside and drew honks from nearby drivers on Mapleview Drive, many with hand-drawn or handpainted signs, expressing their discontent with how the cuts could affect their upcoming post-secondary careers and financial status.
Similar demonstrations took place around the same time with students of other high schools across the province, including at Barrie-Springwater-Oro-Medonte MPP Doug Downey's office. Students there represented Barrie North Collegiate Institute and Eastview Secondary School.
Funding from the OSAP is broken down by a ratio of grants to students, and loans from the government that students are required to pay back with interest following their post-secondary education. The current proportion of OSAP funding is about 85 per cent grants to 15 per cent loans, but starting this fall students will receive a maximum of 25 per cent of their OSAP funding as grants
The announcement from Colleges and Universities Minister Nolan Quinn to cut back on financial assistance grants came on Feb. 12 alongside a multi-billion dollar funding boost for post-secondary institutions and an end to a freeze on tuition fees.
Fynn Touchette, a 12th-grade student at Bear Creek, says he was "absolutely surprised and taken aback" by the government's decision.
"I understand they're trying to give more money back to the universities (and colleges)," he said. "But, by removing and taking away the supports that they have, it's disproportionately affecting low-income students. It's going to decrease the amount of people who are going to be able to get an education."
Touchette helped organize the walkout movement within his school and coordinated with Innisdale and Maple Ridge students for the protest effort. He says around 50 to 75 of his peers from Bear Creek were expected at the rally.
He even ran an Instagram account to get the word out and set up carpooling to attract as many people as possible.
"This is just a mechanism for me to reach young people," he says. "Instagram is incredibly effective at just communicating the message. So, word of mouth, posters, flyers, talking to people, that's how I reached out.
"It didn't really take that much convincing, because this is something that students really care about."
Touchette has already applied for university, but says the cuts could push him away from a desired education in political science, and into the military, which could guarantee him a tuition entirely funded by the armed forces.
The 18-year-old says the decision is something important to him as a first-time voter when the provincial polls open next, if not, before Apr. 11, 2030, and thinks this issue is something that will stick with a lot of his peers when they vote for the first time.
He also says their efforts hope to attract a public statement from Khanjin outlining support for her constituents, opposing the changes to OSAP grants.
Khanjin's constituency office was locked, and it didn't appear anyone was inside at the time of the demonstration. Her office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
"I have called, I have emailed numerous times," Stouchette said. "The only information from her office was that she will not be here. Nothing about whether she supports us, nothing about anything."
Fellow organizer Kien Duong, a 12th-grade Innisdale student, says the sentiment the group shares is being felt across the province as other demonstrations take place outside the city.
"We all pretty much have the same consensus, we're just all at physically different locations," Duong says. "But, today we have come together to show our solidarity as one, for the future of Ontario."
Duong is among the lucky few that has a full-fledged Registered Education Savings Plan (RESP), but isn't letting his fortunate situation push him away from fighting for a cause he believes in.
"These loans, they are heavy," he says. "Graduating to university is already stressful. These changes add more stress to us."
"It's going to make Canada's youth more uneducated in a time where we're facing record amounts of unemployment, in a time where you need a degree to get a good and stable job," Touchette adds.
Organizers say that while their teachers can't take a formal position on the matter, they've been supportive and helped students with resources, ideas, and have rearranged their schedules to accommodate their cause.
A Statistics Canada report from Sep. 10 says Ontario's average annual tuition for Canadian undergraduate students was $8,958 for the 2025-26 academic year, 11.5 per cent higher than the national mean. Meanwhile, international undergrads pay $49,802 annually on average, 11.9 per cent more than the national figure.
The Barrie protests come a week after hundreds of Ontario post-secondary students and supporters took to the lawn of the legislature. There, similar apprehension was shown, although it was a much more tense demonstration.
The Ontario government will table its 2026 budget on March 26, which will include the reduction in the amount of grants students can receive and force many to have a heavier reliance on loans.
"It's not setting young Ontarians up for a good future, and it's taking away supports that previous generations had," Touchette says. "We're not getting a fair shot at adulthood."
