One of the surest ways to create or deepen racial divisions is to set them in stone, albeit and even if that happens because of well-intentioned efforts to right past injustices.

The violence spilling out of Atlantic Canada over the Supreme Court's ruling to allow natives to fish out of season is just the latest incident that results from such efforts.

On this side of the country, the Westbank Indian Band has cut timber on crown land despite a stop-work order issued by the province. Just in case there was any confusion about their position, the band ran a full-page advertisement in the Vancouver Sun stating that "from now on, any forestry operations on our Aboriginal title lands will require written permission from the member nation." While the rhetoric has cooled temporarily, Westbank's leaders originally hinted that a 50-man militia backed their decree.

The Supreme Court's preference for race-based laws and the zeal of some Indian bands in ignoring existing legislation is creating pure anarchy. And it's not getting any better.

The latest salvo to be fired from some native leaders (not all) concerns taxation. There are approximately one hundred cases involving Indian taxation before the courts. The aboriginal plaintiffs in these cases generally claim that they should be exempt from taxation in one form or another due, either directly or indirectly, to their racial background.

In the most recent of these cases, Shilling v. the Queen, the federal court declared that Indians living and working off reserves are exempt from paying income tax so long as they are employed by an agency located on a reserve.

Now comes the Benoit case. Currently before the Federal Court, Benoit would take the taxation question a step further and have all Treaty 8 Indians declared tax exempt, period. That means that no Treaty 8 Indian would pay any type of tax at any time, now or in the future, anywhere in Canada.

The Treaty 8 Indians (who occupy a large geographic area encompassing Alberta, British Columbia, Saskatchewan, and the Northwest Territories) argue that they were given a verbal pledge in 1899 that all Indians under the treaty and their descendants are exempt from paying any tax, whatever form that might take. The federal government disagrees with the Treaty 8 plaintiffs and is fighting the claim in court. The Alberta government has also joined in the case.

The Treaty 8 case is bound to have far reaching consequences. Should the plaintiffs succeed other Treaty and non-Treaty Indians will attempt to use the Treaty 8 case as a precedent. It is possible that total exemption of Indians from taxation could extend throughout Canada.

Some might say, "So what's so wrong with that Our native population deserves compensation for the way they've been treated." Well, monetary settlements are in order, but not through re-creating the tax system based on race. No rational group of human beings anywhere in the world would set up a race-based tax system. It can only lead to fear, loathing, a disregard for the rule of law, and in the worst case - violence. Those who doubt that should pay more attention to the disputes now occurring on both coasts and the violence that erupted on one of them.

For all of the above reasons, the Canadian Taxpayers Federation has sought to intervene in the Benoit case. Canadians must be treated equally under Canada's tax system and the law must be applied consistently without discrimination based on race. Anything less would be, and already is, a disaster.