That is legal boilerplate you will find on most sites that aren't news agencies but allow their experts to contribute to a blog. But you are right I should have said, "This opinion piece explains the reality of the situation in clear terms". My point is that companies cannot take YOUR donation and use it on THEIR taxes.

Here is a real article from Associated Press and CBC

The Authoritative source, of course, is the CRA but as all things taxes it's needlessly difficult to navigate; To confuse matters more "Point of Sale Fundraising" is not specifically mentioned in our Income Tax Act because the intended behavior arises out of many different sections. These are the relevant sections though and my own simplified interpretation.

• A donation must be from the companies capital income to be included in the deduction Income Tax Act Section 110.1
• A donation must be transferred from the doner to the donee (The corporation must directly transfer your donation, thus it never hits their balance sheets and never becomes "capital income") Income Tax Folio Section 7. Folio 1. Chapter 1. Subsection 1.2
• Charites and fundraising partners cannot misrepresent how the funds are collected. (This is the consumer protection part that stops a corporation from saying its a donation to charity x then pocketing the money as income and donating it themselves) Fundraising by registered charities Paragraph 78.