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Cuban connections

Re A Historic Breakthrough As U.S., Cuba Restore Ties (Dec. 18): President Barack Obama has finally earned that Nobel Peace Prize he was awarded back in 2009.

Peter Love, Toronto

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This was not a "huge triumph" for anybody ('This Is A Huge Triumph For Fidel' – Dec. 18). This was a moderate advancement for the Cuban and American peoples, and a bigger challenge for the Cuban nation, on and off the island. Will Cuban civil society be reborn from its ashes? That's the big question to which Barack Obama just opened the door. There is also a continental dimension to all of this, and we will soon see the implications.

Raúl Colón, Ottawa

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You indicated that the Castro government is rife with inefficiency and corruption (The Next Move Is Yours, Mr. Castro – editorial, Dec. 18). How does this compare with the inefficiency and corruption of the previous capitalist dictatorship?

Dale Boddy, Red Deer, Alta.

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Guess that's it for Canadians and our special relationship with Cuba. Time to rekindle conversations with Turks and Caicos.

Trish Crowe, Kingston

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Will Cuba now go the way of the Soviet Union? Will rampant free enterprise sequester the wealth with a few oligarchs? Will Cubans lose their excellent free medical system? Will the U.S. find another Batista to install?

Hugh Jones, Toronto

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Re Canada Plays Host (Dec. 18): I wonder if Barack Obama will reciprocate by providing neutral meeting sites for secret talks between Stephen Harper and Kathleen Wynne.

Paul Kernighan, Cambridge, Ont.

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A theatre near you

While the film The Interview has been pulled from cinemas for the worst of reasons – terrorist threats – I was taken aback to read the premise of the film as set out in your article (Sony Pulls The Interview After Threats – Dec. 18).

Anyone who thinks there's a comedy in the idea that two masquerading journalists should conspire to blow off the head of a real North Korean leader has a warped sense of humour. I remind you of an almost identical incident in real life when two operatives sent by al-Quaeda, and posing as journalists, assassinated anti-Taliban leader Ahmad Shah Massoud in September, 2001. They used the ruse of a television interview to get close to him, then blew him up with a camera packed with explosive. The idea didn't seem so funny then.

The jobs of real journalists seeking difficult interviews and reporting these dangerous incidents across the world is essential, and difficult enough. I have a hard time thinking how I am going to get a laugh out of an allegedly funny film that portrays fake journalists sent by the CIA (no less) to do the same thing. I want our foreign correspondents to get these important stories.

Of course, I stand by the right of the filmmakers to make whatever film they wish, with the usual caveats about "no person or animal being damaged in the process."

Sarah Jennings, Ottawa

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We don't have to react like this. Terrorists and cyberterrorists can be thwarted by simply carrying on with life as normal. When we cower, they win.

Film studios and theatre outlets need to step up: Release the film. It will then be incumbent upon all of us to show a little backbone, and say, "I'm buying a ticket."

Then we'll prove that terrorists can't change the way we live.

Pete Reinecke, Ottawa

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Bench the politics

Re New Judge Criticized Legalization Of Gay Marriage (Dec. 18): What are these immoral notions with which newly named judge Bradley Miller fears our children are being "indoctrinated"? That people who love each other can say so publicly?

I thought the fact society and civilization have survived several years of same-sex marriage might have buried these views, but no. They've been hiding in dusty corners of the University of Western Ontario's law library.

Patricia Clarke, Toronto

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The judicial appointments in Ontario this week are stark reminders that the system for judicial selection in Canada is thoroughly broken. We should be long past the era where an aloof executive gets to pick sympaticos to be the country's judges.

Now more than ever, at a time of crucial Charter of Rights interpretation by the courts, there is simply way too much at stake to allow politicization of the judiciary to continue.

It is bad for the country and for the judiciary who, one would expect, wouldn't appreciate being tainted by the politicized appointment process. The good news is that it doesn't need to be this way. Many countries have modernized their judicial selection process to be based on a multi-stakeholder vetting procedure that reduces politicization to a minimum.

In Canada, the Prime Minister or Minister of Justice would just need to agree to the outcomes of such a process and that would be that. No more sickening headlines about judicial appointments.

Vince Calderhead, Halifax

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Courting givers

Re In The Charity World, Cash Is The New Goat (Dec. 18): Aid agencies don't operate like St. Nick, randomly depositing goats on rooftops or in pastures around the world. The gifts are part of a much bigger plan.

The items in World Vision's Gift Catalogue are integral to our long-term community development programs in more than 100 countries. Working in partnership with communities themselves, we give children and families tools to create better lives. They help us identify what items will help them. That could mean goats (along with training on animal husbandry), clean water, medical clinics, textbooks or front-line help for traumatized or trafficked children. Every gift is tailored to the needs of the people we serve.

I agree that, at times, it can be appropriate to provide money directly to families in need. In many regions, World Vision operates cash-for-work programs and provides electronic food vouchers.

Michael Messenger, executive vice-president, World Vision Canada

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Oxfam's mandate goes far beyond goats. It responds to humanitarian crises, supports more long-term, sustainable development (like water and sanitation) and, most crucially, works to change aid and trade policy for the better.

Most charities that focus on developing countries fight against indifference and cynicism. It doesn't help the cause of ending poverty when Margaret Wente is so negative during the giving season.

Mark Foss, Montreal

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'Pimped my vote'

Re Victory For Prentice As Nine Alberta Wildrose MLAs Defect To Tories (Dec. 18): What's the point of voting when politicians get to do this? Any politician who crosses the floor should trigger a by-election and be barred from running again. Ever. Period.

These guys just pimped my vote, and the vote of every Albertan who put them in office.

Janet Wilson-Smith, High River, Alta.

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