1926 Balfour Report: Canada Achieves Greater Autonomy From Britain

The Balfour Report, from the 1926 Imperial Conference, declared the United Kingdom and its Dominions "autonomous communities within the British Empire, equal in status...and freely associated as members of the British Commonwealth of Nations," which replaced the principle of hierarchal relationships. Based mainly on the British Commonwealth's acceptance of the principles underpinning the autonomy of the self-governing Dominions, this document represented an important step in Canada's path to complete autonomy. The law affirming these principles was the 1931 Statute of Westminister, whic…