The radio show Mayor Rob Ford hosts with brother Doug is set to go ahead as usual this week, according to Newstalk 1010 program director Mike Bendixen.

“Things are status quo for this weekend,” Bendixen wrote in an email to the Star on Friday afternoon. He said there was no review of the show and that it is still on the schedule for the following weekend as well.

Earlier this week, police confirmed the existence of a video that appears to show Mayor Ford smoking crack cocaine and making homophobic and racist remarks.

This week, Ford made a 64-second public statement about Police Chief Bill Blair’s confirmation of the video seen by two Toronto Star reporters earlier this year. He refused to comment on the matter, saying, “I wish I could defend myself, unfortunately I can’t because it’s before the courts right now.”

When the Toronto Star first broke the news of the video in May, the Ford brothers cancelled their radio show on the Sunday immediately following the news.

In many of the mayor’s scandals, the radio show has formed the bulk of his public comment.

Their show, called “The City,” has been called a “bully pulpit” by Councillor Paul Ainslie, a former Ford ally whose ward was targeted by robocalls when he voted against Ford’s wishes in the Scarborough subway extension debate last month.

Ainslie said the weekly radio program “should be removed from the airways immediately.” He wrote a letter to the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council arguing the show breached council’s code of conduct.

At the time Bendixen declined to comment on the complaint.

“(It’s) before the CBSC and we will respond accordingly through the normal process,” he said.

The standards council does not have the authority to cancel a program. But if it is determined that a radio program breached the council’s code of conduct, the station must announce the decision on air.

Ford also used the program to defend himself when videos and photos surfaced that showed the mayor appearing to slur his words while on the way to the Taste of the Danforth festival.

The brothers did address the video controversy in the show that aired on the weekend following the news in May. Callers to the show generally favour the mayor, but one asked him directly about the video that week.

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“Number one, there’s no video, so that’s all I can say. You can’t comment on something that doesn’t exist,” he said at the time. The two brothers then attacked the media, with Doug Ford saying that 80 per cent of journalists are “nasty son-of-a-guns,” and Rob calling the media a “bunch of maggots.”

With files from Rachel Mendleson

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