Premier Kathleen Wynne is facing new pressure to rescind the patronage appointment of Liberal fundraiser Gerry Lougheed — a central figure in the Sudbury byelection bribery scandal — to the city’s police board.

Members of the board held an in-camera session and got legal counsel to discuss Lougheed’s status on the board and as its chairman in the wake of a report last week from Elections Ontario that found him and Wynne deputy chief of staff Pat Sorbara in “apparent contravention” of bribery laws.

Lougheed and Sorbara maintain they have done nothing wrong.

The Sudbury board has written to the Ontario Civilian Police Commission for guidance given that the Elections Ontario concerns are now under OPP investigation.

“I think the government needs to act,” Progressive Conservative House leader Steve Clark said Thursday.

“I can’t believe the government would allow this to happen and not ask the provincial appointee to step aside,” he added in reference to Lougheed, who was recently reaffirmed as chair of the board by its members.

Former Liberal candidate Andrew Olivier released tapes of conversations with Lougheed and Sorbara in which he says both Liberal operatives offered him jobs to step aside in a nomination race before the Feb. 5 byelection — an allegation into which the OPP is also conducting a criminal probe.

“The board respects the investigative processes underway,” the five-member Sudbury police agency said in a statement Thursday, noting it is “open to the commission’s view.”

The Ontario Civilian Police Commission did not return calls or emails from the Star.

Wynne has said she had already decided to appoint defecting New Democrat MP Glenn Thibeault — who won the byelection — as her candidate and that any discussions were about Olivier’s future in the party.

NDP Leader Andrea Horwath said Wynne and Community Safety Minister Yasir Naqvi should have “done the right thing” and forced Lougheed to step down by now while the police investigations are completed.

Naqvi said that’s not his call to make.

“The decision as to who is the chair of the board is made by the members.”

Trying to deflect attention from the byelection scandal, several Liberal MPPs held up copies of the March issue of National Geographic with the headline, “The War on Science,” to taunt the Progressive Conservatives during question period.

The stunt was aimed at mocking the Tories for MPP Rick Nicholls, who on Wednesday said he does not believe in evolution, which is taught in Ontario public schools.

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“It was a new low,” said interim Progressive Conservative leader Jim Wilson.

Deputy premier Deb Matthews had her copy of the magazine confiscated by the legislature’s sergeant-at-arms by order of Speaker Dave Levac.

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