In this op-ed, writer Pablo Mhanna-Sandoval explores the perceived shortcomings of Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau.

Right now in Canada, the government is honoring 150 years of Canadian Confederation with a summer packed with celebrations taking place across the country, crowned by Canada Day on July 1. Amid other celebrations, like Pride, some citizens are taking this opportunity to air grievances with the country’s long-standing issues and its current government.

In Toronto, the capital of the province of Ontario and Canada’s largest city, the Pride Parade on June 25 was a major subject of discussion for more than one reason. Black Lives Matter’s appearance and message elicited both praise and scorn on social media, Perry Bellegarde became the first Assembly of First Nations leader to march in Toronto's annual Pride Parade, and, surely enough, #wokebae Justin Trudeau — Canada’s prime minister — was in attendance.

Many news outlets used Trudeau as the main headline to support their coverage, accompanied by pictures of the smiling prime minister, his wife Sophie Grégoire, and other dignitaries waving rainbow Canadian flags and smiling ear-to-ear, showing off cheeks donning rainbow maple leaf tattoos. To say the least, it was — as many of Trudeau’s events are — picture-perfect.

Last year’s Canadian Pride festivities were no different, eliciting headlines like, “Justin Trudeau center of attention at Pride, despite himself” and “Justin Trudeau steals the show at the Vancouver Pride Parade.” Granted, history was made — he was the first sitting prime minister of Canada to march in Pride — but the celebration of his attendance was peak celebrity-worshipping and an example of western "cult of personality" obsession.

The prime minister’s carefully-curated socks made a splash on Twitter, too. The colorful pair he donned at Pride read “Eid Mubarak,” a greeting in Arabic that honors the end of Ramadan, and the socks are now being praised as a cunning statement of solidarity with Canada’s Muslim community. This small gesture, as most that come from Trudeau do, made for more colorful headlines.

It positioned Trudeau as a multitasker, visibly showing solidarity with two historically and contemporarily oppressed minority communities on the same day. There would be absolutely no issue with all this symbolism, and all the media raving, if there were concrete actions to back them up.

Trudeau has shown some legislative muscle to support the Canadian LGBTQ community: Last year, he introduced legislation promising “full” protective rights for transgender people, and his government has promised to apologize for the firing of thousands of federal workers because of their sexuality as part of a "national security" purge during the Cold War by the end of the year. But how inconvenient a truth that last April, his government also approved export permits as part of a multi-billion-dollar arms sale to Saudi Arabia, a country infamous for their repressive crackdowns on the LGBTQ community.