The Halibut Treaty

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After the end of World War I, the Allied Powers met to set the peace terms for the defeated countries. The main decisions were the creation of the League of Nations, five major peace treaties with the defeated nations, disposition of the overseas colonies of Germany, and the drawing of new national boundaries of Europe. This conference set the stage for high reparations that Germany had to pay. Since Canada had been a major country playing important roles in allied victory, Prime Minister Robert Borden demanded that Canada should have a separate seat at the conference, giving Canada the right to sign the Treaty of Versailles. As a result …show more content…

This incident prompted further independent status of Canada defined in the Balfour Report and the Statute of Westminster.

- 1923, The Halibut Treaty: As the Northern Pacific Railway reached the west coast, a large scale of halibut fishing began, further exacerbating the already dwindling stock in the Atlantic halibut fishery, which was caused by increasing demand from Europe and the U.S.. In 1918, Canada and the United States made an agreement on preserving fish stocks, resulting in the Convention for the Preservation of Halibut Fishery of the Northern Pacific Ocean. The agreement established the International Fishery Commission. The treaty proposed a season closed for commercial fishing, and was intended to last 5 years. Despite the British wishes to sign the treaty together with Canada, Prime Minister William Mackenzie King insisted that Canada should be the sole country negotiating with the U.S. because the matter was not concerned with any British interest. As the first treaty that …show more content…

- 1926, November The Balfour Report : Imperial Conference of British Empire issued the Balfour Declaration, named after Lord President of the Council Arthur Balfour, declaring the United Kingdom and the Dominions to be independent states, which are not subjugated to one another, recognizing autonomy, the freedom to govern themselves. The King-Byng crisis was one of the reasons that prompted the redefinition of the legal relationship among self-governing nations of the British Empire. Mackenzie King and South African Prime Minister J.B.M. Hertzog played a main role in forming the Balfour report, making an important step for Canada to be fully self-governing state. It was a landmark document confirming Canada as a fully independent country, united with Britain and the other Dominions through the Commonwealth.

- 1931, December The Statute of Westminster : The recommendations of the Balfour Report were made law by the British Parliament in the 1931. Passed on the 11th of December, the Statute of Westminster effectively granted the