Ontario alleges thousands of OSAP forms used one IP address

TORONTO – Ontario’s Ministry of Colleges and Universities alleges in court filings that thousands of Ontario Student Assistance Program applications for 2025-26 at three Academy of Learning campuses came from a single IP address at each campus, according to reports by The Canadian Press and The Globe and Mail.

The allegations have not been proven in court. The schools’ operators have denied wrongdoing, and the campuses are challenging the province’s decision to bar them from OSAP.

The ministry alleges that 3,136 of 6,001 applications at the Brampton East campus (52 per cent), 3,460 of 6,070 at North York (57 per cent) and 1,736 of 6,966 at Bay Street in Toronto (25 per cent) came from one IP address, The Canadian Press reported. Added together, that is 8,332 of 19,037 applications, or about 44 per cent, by Canada News Media’s calculation. The reports do not say whether the same address is involved at more than one campus.

An IP address can show an internet user’s approximate location. Officials in the ministry’s student financial assistance branch say the patterns point to third parties submitting OSAP forms for students, which program rules do not allow, The Globe and Mail reported.

The filings also say the ministry has received more than 220 tips, complaints, referrals and investigations about the three campuses since Jan. 1, 2024, The Canadian Press reported. The ministry says some alleged that recruiters filed OSAP applications, uploaded documents and completed coursework for students, and used OSAP funding as a recruiting tool.

The Academy of Learning did not comment on the new filings to The Canadian Press and did not respond to The Globe and Mail’s questions by deadline. The franchises, which share a parent company, Opulence Education Group, have previously denied wrongdoing and say they have made a long list of corrective changes, including cutting ties with some recruiters, tightening admissions and adding two-factor authentication.

In a letter to the ministry, the schools said shared addresses may reflect several people living at one address. “The presence of the same IP address among different users does not, by itself, establish misconduct, misrepresentation, or unauthorized activity,” they wrote. The franchises’ chief operating officer also wrote in August that the concentration could stem from new safeguards requiring applicants to fill out OSAP forms at a campus terminal, and that the schools could not reasonably respond to tips when the substance had not been shared with them, The Globe and Mail reported.

The ministry disputes those explanations. It wrote that shared activity among online learners referred by the same recruiter “is significant and renders the institution’s proposed explanation unlikely in this case.” It also said the on-campus safeguards would not explain patterns found before they took effect, according to The Globe and Mail.

The three campuses were among six schools the province made ineligible for OSAP in May, citing an “inability to reliably determine bona fide studies.” They applied for judicial review. The Globe and Mail reported that court documents show a confidential July 30 settlement in which the ministry agreed to a fresh review while the schools paused their case, followed by Aug. 10 memos saying their status would not be renewed and final rejections on Sept. 4.

The Canadian Press reported in October that the schools updated their court application to say the bar now runs until 2029-30, and that they argue the decision was unreasonable and procedurally unfair. Canada News Media did not find a published hearing date.

An independent compliance monitor reported on Aug. 19 that the schools had carried out the corrective actions they committed to, with one minor exception, but it had trouble verifying 100 randomly chosen OSAP-funded students, only nine of whom completed interviews, The Globe and Mail reported.

For students, the immediate effect is on funding. OSAP is available only at eligible schools, so students at the three campuses cannot use it there while the bar stands. About 14,800 students at the three locations received more than $219 million in OSAP grants in 2024-25, according to freedom-of-information data obtained by The Canadian Press.

“A further three-year bar from OSAP would have serious consequences for adult learners who rely on financial assistance to access career training, which is why we are asking the court to review the decision,” the Academy of Learning said in an October statement to The Canadian Press.

Students at other private schools are also affected. Colleges and Universities Minister Nolan Quinn paused OSAP payments to all private post-secondary institutions in October and said they will not resume until a new approval process is in place, which he expects in the new year. Our earlier report covered a career college that suspended classes after the pause, which came on top of broader changes to OSAP grants and loans this year.

Quinn has hired KPMG to audit OSAP payments to career colleges and referred the matter to the Ontario Provincial Police. It is not known whether the referral includes specific allegations about the Academy of Learning, The Canadian Press reported.

“Any misuse of OSAP is unacceptable,” Quinn’s spokesperson, Bianca Giacoboni, said in a statement. Opposition critics Peggy Sattler of the NDP and Tyler Watt of the Liberals said the filings raise questions about what the government knew and why it did not act sooner.

Canada News Media has not reviewed the court filings directly. The figures and quotes from them come from The Canadian Press and The Globe and Mail, which reported on the filings separately. The Canadian Press report also ran on CBC News, CP24 and The Trillium.

If you find reporting like this useful, consider supporting Canada News Media, an independent Canadian newsroom with no corporate parent.