by Sean Orr | Aside from the fascinating spectacle that is The Royal Visit, the gumshoes over at The Province are clearly bored. Here’s a headline case in point:  Cops should enforce cycling laws as well. Hmm, that might sound more sincere if your paper wasn’t 40 pages of car ads book-ended by sports and crime…

Euro Trade Pact Worries ‘Buy Local’ Movement. “And while BC is participating in the talks, the premier says she can’t yet say what her position on the issue will be.” Because in BC, government consensus comes only after public outrage…

Meanwhile, Megaphone asks what does the Premier’s Family First agenda mean for the DTES? While the writer nails all the right buzzwords, she alludes to totally understanding the area’s needs because she “served coffee in a community restaurant” and once took a ride along with the cops…

Vancouver’s Mackay won Top Chef Canada. Yes, while Postmedia journalist Gwendolyn Richards takes honours for the most badly written article in recent memory:

The judges joked that even the beach barbecue dishes prepared by MacKay — formerly of the renowned but now-closed Lumiere restaurant — were fancy-pants, which got him annoyed, which seems silly, considering that’s what he pumped out all season long. In fact, wasn’t he always complaining that he wanted to do high-end food? Then he got miffed that Rossi is chugging beers with the judges. He’s not just fancy-pants, he’s cranky-pants.

Back to quality press, a writer for 24hrs tells us that the HST referendum is full of mystery. Not really, but he uses a Samuel Johnson quote so that’s good enough for me.

In the Globe and Mail, we learn that mystery surrounds the death of a BC man in police custody. Again, the only mysterious thing here is the obfuscation of facts withheld by the authorities:

The case has since been handed over to the RCMP-led Integrated Homicide Investigation Team. Its spokesman, Sergeant Peter Thiessen, said in an interview on Monday that Mr. Kampman was known to police for previous activity. He declined to comment further.

A court search indicates Mr. Kampman had a pair of speeding tickets, and another driving violation for failing to wear a seatbelt.

Cops still investigating cops…