In Ontario, you can now shop at Wal-Mart at 2 am. Perfect for sufferers of Phantom Girlfriend Syndrome who can't sleep at night, as the dreaded Valentine's Day approaches. (Oops! I just realized, I accidentally signed 07 on this cartoon. All those 24/7s were getting to me, I guess.)

Last week, Brendan Jones, a Grade 12 student at Heart Lake Secondary School in Brampton, Ontario, was expelled from school for writing a piece of fiction in an exam. Now he is barred from finishing high school because he dared to write about a student murdering one of her teachers (here is the Globe article).

Well, last I looked, murder mysteries were a legitimate form of expression, horror movies were raking in cash and the most popular video games were all about killing people. (What that says about us is topic for another day.) Is there now a minimum age at which aspiring writers can take on topics that pervade our culture without risking their academic futures?

While some may argue that we can't be too careful given school violence, words are not the problem. More expression of all kinds, not less, is needed. I pity students growing up in today's climate of fear. If they can't express themselves, what's left for them? Let me stress: This was fiction.

This case reminded me of a cartoon I did almost exactly seven years ago about a similar act of first-degree fiction, except that it was a 15-year-old who spent 35 days in prison for writing about a student who blows up his school. The charges ended up being dropped. (In the cartoon, excerpted above, Celia meets a girl who has been jailed for writing about assassinating Premier Mike Harris.)

Grade 12 students across the province could support Brendan Jones by using the power of words to shock and appall, and write short stories in which a teacher gets offed. They can't all be expelled. That might teach the teachers to respect freedom of expression.

Brendan's friends have set up a Save Brendan Jones Facebook support group. You can read his dangerous story there.