Etay Beaton, a Humber Polytechnic student and content creator, says he is being unfairly blamed for recent changes to the province’s Ontario Student Aid Program(OSAP) after his viral social media videos drew attention online.
Beaton, who has more than 8,000 followers on Instagram, gained popularity through videos where he discusses various topics while rubbing lotion on his hands.
In early February, he began posting videos showing items such as glasses, shoes, watches, cologne and tablets while saying, “We love you, OSAP money.”
One of the first videos in the series, posted Feb. 6, received over 12,800 views and more than 16,900 shares. Other social media creators later posted similar videos.
The Ontario government announced on Feb. 12 that OSAP grants will now make up a maximum of 25 per cent of total aid, down from the previous cap of 85 per cent. The government claims the change was needed because of financial insustainability in the post-secondary sector.
Beaton said he began receiving online backlash after the province announced the OSAP changes.
“I've been used as a scapegoat,” he said.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford said during a Feb. 17 press conference that he had heard “nightmare stories” about students using OSAP money to buy “fancy watches and cologne.” Ford said he has been getting "thousands" of calls from students regarding the changes.
One of Beaton’s videos was later featured in a segment by CityNews, along with other creators doing the same trend. Beaton, in an uploaded video, asked CityNews’s Queen’s Park reporter, Tina Yazdani, about it. She told him she was not involved in producing that particular segment; the provincial government had allegedly sent one of his videos as part of its response.
Beaton said using his videos to shift blame onto him is unfair.
“The fact that you're using me putting my piece out there and trying to tell people that it's my fault to take some of the blame and pressure off you is pretty ridiculous because,” he said. “I've been receiving a bunch of death threats and, you know, a lot of people coming after me and my family, they feel unsafe.”
According to The Globe and Mail, Ontario conducted more than 900 fraud investigations into its student assistance program last year, though provincial officials did not disclose its findings.
Beaton says "he's(Doug Ford) been planning to do this since 2019."
Financial pressure on colleges has also been linked to earlier policy decisions. In 2019, the Government of Ontario cut domestic tuition by 10 per cent and froze it.
A 2021 report from the Auditor General of Ontario found that public colleges became increasingly dependent on international students to remain financially sustainable.
The report said colleges collected about $1.7 billion in international student tuition in the 2020–21 academic year, representing 68 per cent of total tuition revenue, while international students made up about 30 per cent of enrolment.
The report also said Ontario has the lowest per-student funding for post-secondary education in Canada.
The federal government later introduced a cap on international student permits in 2024, affecting Ontario post-secondary institutions.
