The PQ faced growing criticism from all sides Wednesday about a daring "Quebec identity" bill that even former sovereigntist premier Bernard Landry said is a legal minefield.

The Parti Québécois legislation — Bill 195 — proposes "Quebec citizenship" and bar newcomers to the province from running in elections unless they pass a French test, whether they're from other parts of Canada or abroad.

PQ Leader Pauline Marois has come under fire for introducing the polemical bill, which critics have called xenophobic and divisive.

Former PQ premier Bernard Landry has reservations about the legislation, even though he agrees with the spirit of the law, as he told Montreal newspaper La Presse, in a report published Wednesday.

Any legislation has to guarantee that "the rights of a Canadian who moves to Quebec don't regress," Landry said, but foreigners should have an appropriate knowledge of French.

"When we integrate to a nation, we have to reasonably know the language of that nation. It's common sense," he said.

Premier Jean Charest called the bill harsh and retrogressive — while international relations minister Monique Gagnon-Tremblay said it projects an image of intolerance to the global community.

Liberal house leader Jean-Marc Fournier said the bill would have enshrined one of the most infamous slips in Canadian political history, when former PQ premier Jacques Parizeau blamed the referendum's "yes" side loss on money and the ethnic vote in 1995.

Opposition Leader Mario Dumont attacked the legislation this week, accusing the PQ of pandering to its own members by introducing the bill on the eve of a party meeting last weekend north of Montreal.

Marois insists there needs to be a debate about her legislation, and wants a parliamentary commission to study the bill.

"I want us to seriously study this bill," she told La Presse. "Afterwards, we can decide whether we adopt it or not, and if there are proposed amendments."

With files from the Canadian Press