In our timeline, Canada and Britain remained allies throughout the war. Canada had declared war on Germany independently — one week after Britain, as a sovereign assertion that Canada was not automatically at war because Britain was — and fought alongside her to the end.
In this timeline, the armistice was Britain's decision alone. What makes it worse: the War Cabinet's authorisation on 11 January contained an explicit condition. The Minister without Portfolio, Arthur Greenwood, had stated he would support opening armistice contact only "provided that the Dominions were informed simultaneously." The condition was acknowledged. It was never honoured. Halifax proceeded through nineteen days of secret negotiation without contacting Ottawa, Canberra, Wellington, or Pretoria once. Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa learned the war was over from a BBC wireless broadcast at nine o'clock on the evening of 30 January 1941. At that moment, Canadian forces were deployed in active operational positions with no orders received.
What follows is the first formal diplomatic response — sent from Ottawa the following morning. William Lyon Mackenzie King had spent his career defending Canadian autonomy within the Empire; the 1931 Statute of Westminster, which gave Dominions full legislative independence, was in large part his achievement. He writes here in the language of a man who must remain correct while naming precisely what was done to his country.
The telegram's final paragraph — Canada declared war as a sovereign act of Parliament; Canada will consider the armistice terms as a separate sovereign matter — is the first sentence of the Empire's disintegration.
MOST IMMEDIATE — DOMINIONS OFFICE TELEGRAM
FROM: THE PRIME MINISTER OF CANADA, OTTAWA
TO: THE RIGHT HONOURABLE THE VISCOUNT HALIFAX, PRIME MINISTER, LONDON
DATE: 31 JANUARY 1941
REF: D.O. TEL. 31/1/41
I have to inform Your Lordship that the Government of Canada received notification of the Instrument of Armistice signed at Lisbon on 30 January through the medium of a wireless broadcast by the British Broadcasting Corporation at nine o'clock in the evening of that date. No prior notification was received through any diplomatic channel. No consultation was undertaken with the Government of Canada at any stage of the negotiations which produced this result. The first knowledge available to His Majesty's Government in Canada of the terms under which hostilities have been declared to have ceased was that provided by the public announcement.
I must record that this Government considers the manner in which this matter has been conducted to be without precedent and gravely contrary to the obligations which obtain between the nations of the Commonwealth. At the time of the announcement, units of the Canadian Army were deployed in active operational positions. At the time of this communication, no instruction or guidance has been received from London regarding the disposition or status of Canadian forces.
I require, as a matter of urgency, clarification on the following points:
First: the immediate status of Canadian forces presently under British command and the orders, if any, they have received or are to receive regarding cessation of operations.
Second: the extent to which the terms of the Armistice are understood by His Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom to be binding upon the Governments of the Dominions, and the constitutional basis for any such understanding.
Third: whether His Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom proposes to consult with the Governments of the Dominions before presenting the full terms of the Armistice, and if so, on what timeline.
Canada declared war upon the German Reich on 10 September 1939 as a sovereign act of the Parliament of Canada. This Government will require to consider the terms of any armistice as a separate and sovereign matter, and cannot consider itself bound by an instrument it was given no opportunity to examine.
I await Your Lordship's earliest reply.
MACKENZIE KING