(LifeSiteNews) — We all remember what it was like during the COVID hysteria, with the myriad lockdowns and other restrictions. Especially crazy were the situations in Canada and Australia.
My guest on tonight’s episode of The John-Henry Westen Show, Monica Smit, was imprisoned by the Australian government for her resistance to the COVID tyranny – and is now taking them to task for it.
Smit begins telling me that the “freedom movement,” which she calls the “freedom family,” is “bigger and wider spread than anyone could ever imagine.” After just having visited 17 countries in five months, she explains there are groups of “freedom people” around the world in places people would not expect. She also explains that a good deal of “community groups” don’t want to be part of a large organization or have a top-down hierarchy.
“Small villages in Norway or in Italy are thriving with all of this self-sustainability, and it just gave me … a lot of hope that there are so many good people, strong people in the world that are ready for whatever happens,” she explains.
Speaking to her legal challenge against the Victoria police – and by extension the Australian government – for its COVID policies, she recounts that she was arrested three times on October 31, 2020, in her capacity as a journalist covering a protest against the country’s COVID policies. Other reporters were also reporting the protest, though Smit was held for three quarters of an hour in a police van after the second arrest.
“I just thought to myself, ‘If they’re going to do this to me, a journalist, in a nice outfit, respectful and calm, what are they gonna do to other people?’” she recounts. While it took her three-and-a-half years of paperwork, Smit now has a court date to challenge what happened to her that day. She also notes that the police generally “shrug and laugh it off” when told that they will be seen in court and the like, because people don’t usually have the resources or lifestyle to “go all the way.”
“The day is finally come,” Smit says of her case. “It’s all laughter right now, but it is scary because, of course, the risk of losing a case like this is very grave. If I lose, I will have a cost order against me of three or $400,000. And for many people that would ruin their life. But luckily, I have family and God on my side. So I’m not too worried about that.”
Reacting to a video of some of the police’s brutality, Smit says it is “interesting” that although people tend to forget about such brutality, she struggles whenever she sees such a video. However, she asserts that God believes in justice, and that it is part of the job of the Catholic to manifest that justice.
When I ask her what she hopes will come out of her case, she admits that she learned to have “low expectations” so she does not keep getting hurt. However, she says her goal is “to just air things publicly.”
“There are so many people here in Victoria especially that were brutalized by the police, maybe even worse than me,” Smit tells me. “But I’m the one with the voice, and I’m the one with the support and the family backing and the faith in God.”
“I feel like I’m airing this for the people that can’t do it, the people who have children, who have to focus on other things,” she adds. Further, she feels she has a duty to do what she can for her audience and those who financially supported her while in prison. Even if she loses the case, she would take solace in the fact that what she has done would be on record for decades and perhaps centuries after the fact.
“I obviously hope that we can make someone accountable for the decisions that were made on that day, and to give the people that can’t do what I’m doing some peace that we at least got heard by someone,” she explains.
Later in the show, Smit discusses discerning God’s will after telling me how she thinks God wants her to challenge the Australian police the way she is.
She first notes that people need to give themselves space to think, and that if people are “always on the run,” with the car radio on, she recommends classical music or instrumental music, so long as one has the room to “hear God.” If God gives guidance, one cannot ignore it if it seems unsuitable. If one wants to hear God’s calling, it will come, but one must be ready to listen, and when it does come, one must listen, lest He not say something again for a time.
Speaking on how to deal with hardships, Smit says she sleeps well, and that she has of late went into nature, which she calls “one of God’s instruments to re-energize us,” to compensate for stress, saying that it has helped her well. Smit says the sun especially is helpful, saying that she imagines God coming down and “zapping me full of energy.”
Returning to her court case, Smit says her strategy is the truth. While she understands that “court is different,” and that people will normally lose their cases in the complexity of procedure, the matter to Smit is simple: “This happened and it shouldn’t have happened.”
Towards the end of the show, she recommends people look at the past few years and consider what worked and what didn’t work when facing something like COVID. She also suggests people be almost thankful when governments are “overplaying their hand,” for the sooner they make mistakes, the sooner we will have the lives we want for our families.
People interested in following Smit and her case can find her website here and her articles for LifeSiteNews here.
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