John N. Smith OC (born July 31, 1943 in Montreal, Quebec) is a Canadian film director and screenwriter.
In 1981 he directed First Winter, a short period drama that went on to be nominated for an Academy Award.
He then made a string of feature-length docudramas that earnestly probed issues such as male sexuality (The Masculine Mystique), teen pregnancy (Sitting in Limbo), and immigration (Welcome to Canada).
With collaborators such as Giles Walker, Smith made economic use of non-professional actors and documentary techniques.
In 1993, he filmed The Boys of St. Vincent, a powerful and controversial television two-part drama depicting the sexual violation of children in a Catholic orphanage.