People don’t ever leave The Point, even if they move far away. Or at least, that’s how it seems to journalist Kathy Dobson. Growing up in Point St. Charles, an industrial slum in Montreal, she sees how people get trapped in the neighbourhood. Dobson shares her journey of trying to escape what was once described as the toughest neighbourhood in Canada, as she and her five sisters—raised by their single mother—deal with slum landlords, “pervy uncles,” and their father—a mostly absent police officer who does occasional work on the side for the local mob. As Kathy grows up and starts attending college outside the Point, she has to learn how to survive in a new world where problems aren't solved by a good punch to the head.

Kathy Dobson is the author of With a Closed Fist: Growing Up in Canada’s Toughest Neighbourhood (2011). Her journalism has appeared in The Globe and Mail, National Post, Canadian Living, and on CBC Radio. Currently completing her PhD at Carleton University in the School of Journalism and Communication, Kathy Dobson’s research has won numerous awards, including a Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship, and she has been a keynote speaker and guest lecturer at many universities including McGill, Concordia, and the University of Toronto.

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