Christmas bells silenced at shopping malls

TORONTO, Dec. 2 (UPI) -- Two shopping malls in Canada say they've asked the Salvation Army's Christmas kettle volunteers not to ring their bells because of noise complaints.

The ringing of Salvation Army bells has been the accompaniment to the holiday season for more than 100 years in North America, but two of Toronto's largest shopping malls -- the Eaton Center and Fairview -- have muzzled them because of noise complaints, the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. reported Thursday.

Volunteer Riley Blake spends many hours with his red kettle inside the downtown Eaton Center collecting, but says some people don't even know he's there.

"A lot of people ask us questions, 'Why don't we use the bells,' because they're so used to it," he said.

"[We tell them it's] because of rules and regulations we're not allowed to. There's not much you can do about it -- just stand here quietly and smile," he said.

An Eaton Center spokesman said the mall is an indoor environment with no overhead music or competing noises.

A few years back, Brian O'Hoski said, management asked the Salvation Army to stop ringing the bells because of noise complaints from some of the mall's 230 tenants.

Shoppers were surprised that complaints could shut down the Salvation Army bells at the Eaton Center.

"It's Christmas," Iman Mahdi said. "It makes no sense."

The bells were never very loud, Bonnie Vivier said -- "it was just a little tinkle."

Salvation Army Capt. John Murray, who deals with bell-ringing complaints on a case-by-case basis, says he's just happy volunteers can hang their kettles where the public can see them and donate.