Welcome to Canada
1989 film directed by John N. Smith
Welcome to Canada is a 1989 Canadian docufiction film directed by John N. Smith. Loosely based on a real-life incident, the film depicts the interactions of a small community in Newfoundland with a group of Sri Lankan Tamil refugees who turn up in the town. The film's cast includes Charlene Bruff, Madonna Hawkins, Nirmalan Masilamany, Anandprasad Pathanjali, Beverly Power, Francis Power, Rosie Power, Kumar Singam Nadarajah, Murugesu Sivanesan, and Sinnakili Baskaran.
The film premiered at the Montreal World Film Festival in 1989, and was screened at the 1989 Toronto International Film Festival.
Smith received a Genie Award nomination for Best Director at the 11th Genie Awards in 1990.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Welcome to Canada” as 1989 film directed by John N. Smith. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the arts & letters register because the source frames it as 1989 film directed by John N. Smith. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Object files, edition statements, performance records and contemporary criticism preserve different stages of the work’s history. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 6, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q48671581. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1989 and 1990.
Titles can refer to several editions, objects or performances, making precise identification essential before interpretation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Welcome to Canada”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Welcome to Canada primary sources, Welcome to Canada archive and Welcome research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
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This entry incorporates text from “Welcome to Canada” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.