Monica Smit is one of the heroes of the Covid era in Australia. She comes from Melbourne, Australia, a city in the Eastern States, the capital of city of Victoria (Melbourne is on the other side of Australia from where I live, in Perth, and is 1700 miles away, comparable to the distance from New York to Houston).
Monica grew up in a fairly ‘alternative’ family, none of her extended family are vaccinated, and she was brought up as a traditional Catholic (Monica commented that the group they were a member of has now been excommunicated from the Catholic church, by the way).
In her late teens and twenties, Monica went through a stage of being a “party animal”; however she realized that she longed for a purpose in life, and prayed that God would give her a purpose and promised to work hard at it, if God would answer her prayer.
She says that she spent over five years looking for this path or purpose that God wanted her to take, and that it was a realization that took place after many lonely walks talking to God.
“…and then it just happened. It didn’t happen overnight, it wasn’t one lucky video or article, it was years and years of searching and self-development. I honestly did give myself to God and asked Him to show me the way…which He did.”
At some stage, she began making video blogs online and acquired a decent following. When Covid hit, initially she was positive about the lockdowns and the anti-Covid measures, but her views changed, and she became a prominent critic of Dan Andrews and the lockdowns. Around this time, she founded “Reignite Democracy” and they had a bus going around the city with slogans on it and a picture of Dan Andrews sticking out his tongue and wiggling his fingers. Reignite Democracy was at the forefront of protests in Australia, and encouraged many people in the fight for freedom.
On one particular day Monica was arrested three times in one day at an anti-lockdown protest in a park in Melbourne – they were social distancing, she was within five kilometres of her home and was exercising and therefore did not have a mask, but the police arrested her – the second time she was arrested she was handcuffed and thrown into a paddy wagon; Monica says this was a unique experience, as she had never been in trouble with the police in her life before.
She cried during the second arrest.
After this incident she began to write down her life story.
During this time, her online following increased, and she began reporting on the protests. In Melbourne it was illegal to encourage people to protest, so speaking as a journalist Monica would play a game: she would say “I’m going to report on this protest,” as a way around the government restrictions.
One day, she had had enough of these games; she wrote “I’m going to this protest and you should too,” and shared a poster online.
A few days before her subsequent arrest for incitement, Monica dreamed that she was being arrested, that the bail conditions were draconian and she refused to sign them, and that she went to jail.
She was indeed arrested on Tuesday 31st August, 2021 for two charges of ‘incitement’ and three charges of ‘breaching the Chief Health Officer’s directions.’ In Smit’s subsequent court appearances, she was offered bail, however she refused to sign the bail conditions which included a 7pm-6am curfew, following the Chief Health Officer’s directions, and not encouraging anyone to breach those directions or publish anything that might incite breaches. She was also told to remove any material previously published online that might incite people, to not attend protests and to wear a mask unless she had a medical exemption.
The police later handed Smit a warrant ordering her to give over the passwords to her personal devices, which she flatly refused to do.
As a consequence of refusing to sign these bail conditions, Monica Smit was imprisoned in solitary confinement in a maximum security prison for 22 days, during which she wrote her book, “22 days.”
She was initially quite shocked by being arrested, taken off to prison, strip-searched and put in solitary confinement, and her lawyers were advising her to sign the bail conditions. She was very tempted to do so on the first day.
Her family was a great support during this time: her mother, a strong, remarkable Catholic woman with with a real spark of mischief and humour, told me that she was more worried that Monica would cave in and sign the ridiculous bail conditions, than that she might spend time in jail.
On the second day of her imprisonment, Monica says that she suddenly realised that if she had earlier had something to write about when she was arrested three times in one day, she now really had something to write about. She immediately began a ten day fast, and started writing her book, and resolved to finish writing the book during this period of imprisonment.
In her speech in Kalamunda today, Monica spoke about the ridiculous inconsistency of jailing her for ‘incitement’ when the thing she was inciting wasn’t even a criminal, jailable offence. She compares it to telling your friend to park in a no-parking zone, something that only has a fine attached to it, then being arrested and put in jail for telling that to your friend.
In an interview with Family Life International, Monica spoke about her faith:
“My work is not specifically religious-based but I never hide the fact that I’m a practising Catholic. I’m always open about my faith being the source of my strength and of the determination I had to keep searching for my purpose. In prison, having God on my side gave me so much peace. He gave me complete peace while I was in there. I didn’t question my decision once because I knew that I was in God’s hands. I prayed a lot about pride and asked Him to make sure my decisions weren’t based on what was good for me, but on what was good for others. I prayed to him over and over…’please don’t let this be in vain…let this mean something.’ Well, He delivered on that prayer!”…
She says that her time in jail was certainly worth every second, because it showed everyone how far the government would go to silence her.
https://www.fli.org.au/faith-and-freedom-an-interview-with-monica-smit/
Thanks for doing this write-up, about the ordeal and triumph of this brave freedom fighter, against the Plandemic tyranny and hysteria.
This sounds like the Covid era's "Letter from the Birmingham Jail". https://letterfromjail.com/
Refusing to bail-out is actually a strong strategy for a movement. It's called 'jailhouse solidarity'. You jam up their jails, and make them carry your weight, until they realize that they can't afford to do so, anymore - or until they get embarrassed about how they're acting.
The Religious Society of Friends used it, quite a bit, during the English Revolution. It's how we got the guarantee of fair Jury trials "Bushels case", and eventually how we got Pennsylvania and the guarantee of Freedom of Conscience, in the American Constitutions.