Canada’s Independence From Britain: WWII

Alaska Panhandle Dispute The Alaska boundary dispute, took place between Canada and the US over the boundary of the Alaska Panhandle. In 1897 the gold rush magnified the issue. A joint high commission of Canadian (2), American (3) and British (1) men got together. The British sided with the Americans leaving us out to dry. PM Laurier noted that because Canada lacked treaty making power it was impossible for us to maintain our rights internationally.

Map showing alaska border dispute. The United States claim is in blue, the Canada/UK claim is in red. The Canadian province of British Columbia claimed a greater area, shown in green. Yellow shows the current border, after arbitration in 1903.

The Boer War This was the first time Canada sent troops overseas to fight in a war ( ). 7,000 Canadians served in South Africa to help Britain, all volunteers. As the war progressed many people noted how unjust and disgraceful the war was to the British dominion. French Canadians fought against our participation as did many other Canadians after realizing how unrelated the whole conflict was to Canada.

Boer women and children in a British concentration camp. During the Second Boer War, the British Empire pursued the policy of rounding up and isolating the Boer civilian population into concentration camps, one of the earliest uses of this method by modern powers. The wives and children of Boer guerrillas were sent to these camps with poor hygiene and little food. Most of the children in these camps died, as did a large minority of the adults.

Lizzie van Zyl who died in the Bloemfontein concentration camp She was a frail, weak little child in desperate need of good care. Yet, because her mother was one of the "undesirables" due to the fact that her father neither surrendered nor betrayed his people, Lizzie was placed on the lowest rations and so perished with hunger that, after a month in the camp, she was transferred to the new small hospital. Here she was treated harshly. The English disposed doctor and his nurses did not understand her language and, as she could not speak English, labeled her an idiot although she was mentally fit and normal. the nurses who told her not to interfere with the child as she was a nuisance".

World War One When we came into the war it was as British subjects. Many Canadians (especially the French) were upset that we should not be able to decide on our own. As the war progressed Canadians made a name for themselves as some of the bravest and smartest soldiers. The conscription Crisis almost split our nation in two, but its results were never as bad as they could have been. Most conscripted forces never saw the battle field.

World War I When World War I broke out in 1914, all Dominions of the British Empire, including Canada, were called upon by Great Britain to fight on its behalf. Canada's sacrifices and contributions to the war changed its history and enabled it to become more independent, while opening a deep rift between the French and English speaking populations. For the first time in its history, Canadian forces fought as a distinct unit under a Canadian-born commander. Battles such as Vimy Ridge, Second Battle of Passchendaele and the Battle of the Somme are still remembered today as part of Canada's heritage, to both its identity and culture.

Balfour Report In 1926 former British PM created this report which stated the following: “Britain and its Dominions… are autonomous communities within the British Empire, equal in status, in no way subordinate one to another in any aspect of their domestic or external affairs, though united by a common allegiance to the Crown, and freely associated as members of the British Commonwealth of Nations."

The Chanak Crisis The Chanak crisis, also called Chanak Affair in 1922 was the threatened attack by Turkish troops on British and French troops stationed near (Chanak) to guard the Dardanelles neutral zone. The Turkish troops had recently defeated Greek forces. Marks the occasion of the Canadian government's first assertion of diplomatic independence from Brtain. The British public were alarmed by the Chanak episode and the possibility of going to war again. It did not help that Prime Minister David Lloyd George had not fully consulted the Commonwealth prime ministers. Unlike the case eight years earlier, when World War I broke out, Canada in particular did not automatically consider itself active in the conflict. Instead, Prime Minister Mackenzie King insisted that the Canadian Parliament should decide on the course of action the country would follow. By the time the issue had been debated in the Canadian House of Commons, the threat at Chanak had passed. Nonetheless, King made his point: the Canadian Parliament would decide the role that Canada would play in external affairs and could diverge from the British government.

The King-Byng Affair The King-Byng Affair was a political crisis in 1926 involving Prime Minister Mackenzie King and Governor General Byng. Byng refused a request to dissolve parliament. The tradition of not having Imperial interference in Canadian politics had been violated.

Halibut Treaty the first treaty negotiated by Canada, independent of Britain. Before this time Canada had always looked to Britain to ratify any international agreements they made. When informed of the treaty, Britain wished to sign the treaty along with Canada, as it had in the past, but Canadian Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King resisted. He insisted that the treaty was only a concern between Canada and the United States. Britain eventually acquiesced when Mackenzie King threatened to send independent representation to Washington, D.C., which would in effect completely bypass Britain's authority. The ratification of the treaty paved the way for further British colony independence, including the Balfour Declaration at the Imperial Conference in 1926, which recognized that British Dominions were "autonomous communities within the British Empire, equal in status, in no way subordinate", and finally the Statute of Westminster in 1931 which repealed the Colonial Laws Validity Act and removed the last vestiges of the ability of the British government to create law which applied to its former colonies.

Statute of Westminster Until 1931 the British commonwealth countries had very ill-defined authority and control of their legislation. This statute clarified the powers of Canada's Parliament by granting the former colony full legal freedom except in those areas where we chose to remain subordinate.