Hung Jury, Sable Island

Barbara McDougall’s review of Brian Mulroney’s Memoirs (“A Satisfying Read,” December 2007) states that “through the coup against Gorbachev and the rise of Boris Yeltsin, the need to bring about and stabilize democracy in the Soviet Union and subsequently Russia were never far from the top of Canada’s foreign policy agenda.”

Has she forgotten that immediately after this coup she announced on TV that Canada would do business with the new regime? To recognize this reactionary putsch with such speed was a disgrace to Canada’s international reputation, and a bad mistake even in Realpolitik terms, since the coup rapidly disintegrated. She could at least have waited for a few days.

Graham Good
Vancouver, BC