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Letters to the Editor should be exclusive to The Globe and Mail. Include your name, address and daytime phone number. Try to keep letters to fewer than 150 words. Letters may be edited for length and clarity. To submit a letter by e-mail, click here: letters@globeandmail.com

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Minor hockey, major misconduct

I was watching my 11-year-old brother's hockey game last Saturday and they won 4-0. After the buzzer rang, a mom from the losing team asked one of the moms from my brother's team if she was doing the loud cheering. When she answered "yes," the other mom hit her in the eye and then the two husbands got involved.

Is this what minor hockey is coming down to?

Parents fighting in front of their kids because one was simply cheering when their team won?

Some parents still question why they had to do the Respect in Sport online program at the beginning of the season. I guess we know the answer.

Jack Kukolic, 13 years old, Mississauga

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The gift of a life saved

Re Inventor Of A Life-Saving Manoeuvre (Obituaries, Dec. 21): How I loved your photo of Dr. Henry Heimlich – the fun in his eyes, the female subject hamming it up! I kept a poster of the Heimlich manoeuvre on the back of our kitchen door until it crumbled, and for this was subject to the mockery of my teenaged children, who were, of course, immortal.

One fine evening, a whole baby mushroom lodged itself in my husband's throat. I sprang to my post at his back and powed him with two fists in just the right spot. Imagine my delight when that mushroom flew across the hall and hit the wall. My next act was to hurry to the phone and boast to my young adults that Henry and I had saved their father!

Marilyn Gear Pilling, Hamilton

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Access: the naughty/nice factor

I was among the many who voted Liberal, prompted equally by deep aversion to Stephen Harper and by optimism that basic decency and good counsel would compensate for Justin Trudeau's shortcomings. While my aversion to the Conservatives is being exacerbated by their current "Survivor"-like "leadership" contest, my optimism as regards Mr. Trudeau is rapidly waning, not least of all because of two fundamental issues on which he is so disturbingly offside.

Bad enough that the Liberals are making a mess of their promised rapid electoral reform, the cash for access scandal puts one in mind of a football game in which Mr. Trudeau has picked up a Harper fumble, only to get disoriented and run toward his own goal line, where he fumbles and hands the Conservatives a touchdown.

The most frightening and ill-portending aspect of this farce is the fact that this was such an easy call. An alert fifth-grader could have got it right, yet Mr. Trudeau failed and, worse, continues his puerile efforts to defend the indefensible.

Amnon Allan Medad, Caledon East, Ont.

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A torrent of criticism has been launched against Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his cash-for-access fundraisers. This is highly unjustified, given that all political parties do this. It always seems there is more than enough criticism to go around with all the hand-dipping in the proverbial cookie jar. Naughty, naughty – and so hypocritical of those wagging their fickle fingers of condemnation.

Did we ever stop to think that maybe these cash-for-access fundraisers will generate jobs for Canadians, perhaps help solve some problems or improve outcomes? Help improve our trade balances? Get greater access to international markets and help sell more of our resources internationally?

Canada is in a unique situation; as Vice-President Joe Biden said in Ottawa recently, the world needs Canada "very very badly."

Let's give the PM credit where credit is due. We have much to celebrate in having him as our Prime Minister. I would be more concerned about the (recently cancelled) $70,000-plus bidding competition just to have coffee with Ivanka Trump. Now there was something to squawk about!

John Moore, Halifax

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Penalty kicks: from we to me

Re The Agony And The Ecstasy Of Penalties (Sports, Dec. 12) : I have to say I completely disagree with Cathal Kelly's assessment of the unfairness of penalty kicks as being perfect. Far from it.

Deciding any major league soccer game via this rule must be relegated to the realm of one of its cardinal sins. Mercy on the soul of the poor player who, by simple misfortune, misses a penalty kick.

How many great players by reason of incredible public pressure send that ball sailing over the crossbar in American football goal-kick conversion fashion?! On any other day, the same player can kick it with laser pinpoint accuracy.

The penalty kick directly contradicts the meaning of a team sport and renders it an individual sport. Eliminate the abomination of penalty kicks from soccer and bring in the common sense and sanity of, similar to hockey, reducing the number of players in overtime, opening up the field and being prepared for some truly exciting and breathtaking end-to-end soccer, with earned victory to the swift and skilled!

In the end, it is still soccer with dignity and not a game shamefully decided by blind fortune.

Luigi Savone, Ottawa

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About that swamp …

U.S. president-elect Donald Trump promised during the election campaign to "drain the swamp" in Washington.

Based on his nominees for cabinet posts and other senior positions, Mr. Trump appears to have decided instead to introduce pythons into the swamp.

Patrick O'Rourke, Stratford, Ont.

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