For Monasterio and others, the visit merges soft diplomacy through cultural and student exchanges with state diplomacy. "It's in the people-to-people world ... where Canadian-Cuban relationships are the most significant," said Karen Dubinsky, who teaches in a joint Queen's University-University of Havana course that brings Cuban students to Canada and sends Canadian students to Cuba.

The project is part of the new MEITS (Multilingualism - Empowering Individuals, Transforming Societies) project based at the University of Cambridge, and funded by the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council. [...] Professor Ayres-Bennett said the MEITS project aims to instill a greater understanding of the health and social benefits of learning a language, particularly to help resolve conflict in troubled areas of the world. She added that languages can have a role in building peace and cohesion.