On 21 March 1960 , in the Sharpeville massacre , the South African police gunned down 67 Black South Africans protesting '' apartheid '' , which in a sign of changing racial attitudes caused much controversy in Canada . There was considerable public pressure on the Prime Minister John Diefenbaker to ask for South Africa to be expelled from the Commonwealth following the Sharpeville massacre with many noting that the South African prime minister Hendrik Verwoerd was an admirer of Nazi Germany . At the conference of the Commonwealth prime ministers in London in 1960 , Diefenbaker tried to avoid discussing the subject of expelling South Africa , but at the next conference in London in 1961 , he played a leading role in passing a resolution declaring racial discrimination incompatible with Commonwealth membership , which led to Verwoerd storming out of the conference and quitting the Commonwealth . The subject of condemning South Africa for '' apartheid '' benefited the Black Canadians since it suggested that racism was no longer acceptable anywhere in the Commonwealth at a time when Commonwealth membership mattered greatly to Canadians
Sharpeville massacre
Sharpeville massacre
Black Canadians