(Significance) Summarize what happened with Canada and the Chanak Crisis, Halibut Treaty, King-Byng Crisis, and the Statute of Westminster? Explain how much autonomy was gained by each?

Chanak Crisis:

In 1922 an incident broke out in the Balkans in a place called Chanak in Turkey. By the terms of the treaty ending the First World War, Britain was committed to maintaining troops there to protect the strait linking the Mediterranean to the Black Sea. When Turks threatened these British troops, Britain sent out a call to its Dominions for assistance.

Canadian Prime Minister Mackenzie King sent a cable to Westminster saying that he would have to consult Parliament before sending troops. This was a signal that Canada was no longer automatically at war on Britain’s demand. Fortunately, the crisis passed before there was any further involvement, but the incident is important as an example of Canada’s increasing independence from England.

Halibut Treaty:

The Halibut Treaty of 1923 was a Canadian-American agreement on fishing rights in the Pacific Ocean. Mackenzie King insisted that Canada be allowed to sign the Halibut Treaty without the signature of a British representative. The British wished to sign the treaty along with Canada, but Prime Minister Mackenzie King argued that the matter was solely the concern of Canada and US and didn’t affect any British or imperial interest. Therefore, Britain should not appear as a contracting party, either in the treaty’s preamble or as a signatory.

As the first treaty independently negotiated and signed by the Canadian government, it was one of several landmark events that transitioned Canada into an autonomous sovereign state.

King-Byng Crisis:

The King-Byng Crisis was a 1926 Canadian constitutional crisis matching the powers of a prime minister against the powers of a governor-general. It began when Prime Minister Mackenzie King asked Governor-General Lord Julian Mackenzie King asked Governor General Byng of Vimy to run Parliament and call fresh elections. Byng refused. It ended with King winning an election, and no governor-general ever again publicly refused the advice of a prime minister.

The King-Byng crisis lead to the Balfour Declaration (the roles of the Governor-General changed to be a representative of the monarch, not the British government). This meant that the amount of British interference with the Canadian government would decrease. All of this was a major step towards independence for Canada.

Statute of Westminister:

The Statute of Westminster, of 11 December 1931, was a British law clarifying the powers of Canada’s Parliament and those of the other Commonwealth Dominions of Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Ireland, and Newfoundland. It granted these former colonies full legal freedom except in those areas where they chose to remain subordinate to Britain.

This Statute granted Canada independence from British regulations and the freedom to pass, amend, and repeal laws within an autonomous legal system. Full autonomy gave the government the independence it needed to build a legislative foundation upon which Canada still stands today.