> It is a reasonable position to frame them as opposing authoritarian government policies and for the governments response to be overreach.

What a joke. No. These people wanted to illegally take over the government. It was written down in their own damn manifesto. Last I checked, taking over a democratically elected government without an election is exactly fascism.

> The popularity of the trucker protest made and makes sense.

The trucker protest was not popular, it was extremely unpopular. It only made such news because the protesters were harassing and assaulting people and causing severe sleep deprivation. Also, it's an insult to "truckers" to call it a truckers protest. Only a very small minority of truckers actually took part. Most were working.

There is no question it was a bad look on Canada, and our police completely failed to handle it in Ottawa. We can all debate on whether the government acted appropriately, but with the Ottawa police complicit in the occupation I don't know what options there where to end it or at least shift the protest into something that wasn't infringing on the rights of the people there to live without being assaulted and threatened.