The Ministry's Shadow Court: Using OSAP as a Political Bludgeon

In the halls of justice, the burden of proof rests on the accuser. But in the office of Ontario's Minister of Colleges and Universities, Nolan Quinn, it seems the burden of proof has been replaced by a convenient lack of transparency.

As first reported by CityNews Toronto, the province has effectively shuttered the financial lifelines of six career colleges by barring them from the Ontario Student Assistance Program (OSAP) for the 2026-27 year. Among those fighting back in Divisional Court are two campuses of Citi College of Canadian Careers and three locations of the Academy of Learning. The government's justification? A vague cloud of 'high-risk admissions' and an alleged inability to 'reliably determine bona fide studies.'

Let's be clear: this is an opinion piece, and my opinion is that the province is playing judge and jury without providing a shred of transparent evidence. By cutting off OSAP, Minister Quinn isn't just regulating schools; he is weaponizing student financial aid to punish institutions before a single allegation has been proven in court.

Citi College’s court challenge exposes the absurdity of the ministry's position. The school notes it was approved to administer OSAP for the previous 20 years and survived two ministry audits last year without a single adverse finding. Yet, suddenly, the minister claims their attendance tracking is 'inadequate' and their participation 'compromised.' Where is the rational chain of analysis? Where are the specific instances of non-compliance?

Instead of transparency, we get redacted lists and 'preliminary findings.' CityNews Toronto reports that a January 2025 letter from Career Colleges Ontario flagged suspicious OSAP spikes at 10 schools—one seeing a 2,700 per cent increase. However, in the court filings, every school on that list is redacted except for the Academy of Learning. The government is using these 'concerns' to justify sweeping actions, yet they refuse to name the culprits or show their work.

Even the data used to paint Citi College as an outlier is misleading. While The Canadian Press found OSAP enrollment at Citi College grew from 133 students in 2021-22 to 1,754 three years later—a 1,200 per cent jump—lawyer Harris Rosen argues this is a distortion caused by a low pre-pandemic base. Rosen contends that when accounting for online expansion and program duration, the growth is far less unusual.

Now, Minister Quinn is doubling down. He has referred 'serious concerns' from a KPMG audit to the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) and has paused OSAP payments across all private post-secondary institutions. He is also moving to legislate the exclusion of predominantly online programs from OSAP eligibility.

This is governance by ambush. Citi College argues the ministry is judging them by new, uncommunicated standards—such as forensic IP analytics and continuous webcam monitoring—that were never part of the rules.

When the state decides who gets to study and who gets funded based on 'concerns' that it refuses to specify, it isn't protecting students; it's engaging in a political purge. If the ministry has evidence of fraud, let the OPP and the courts handle it. Until then, stripping students of their financial aid based on redacted letters and shifting goalposts is not leadership—it's an abuse of power.