I don't believe the majority of people living in the western democracies have a clue about what it is like to live under real authoritarian rule....I think if they had to live in places like China or Russia they would get it pretty quick...
As for these protesters, they never had a chance of getting their demands met, if the government had conceded to them , then they would have lost any and all credibility so it wasn't going to happen....
When they started I actually felt they had good reason to be upset but after weeks of them blocking trade routes between the US and Canada, causing millions in loses , people being laid off on both sides of the border, some of them desecrating a war memorial, assaulting people in the neighborhoods where they are protesting, yelling racists epitaphs, waving the nazi flag etc... it is time for them to go home and when the people who are living with the 24 hour blaring of truck horns fight back a little...it is funny....
In a real authoritarian country these protesters would have been shot by now, rather than be allowed to cause mayhem....