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“A person has the right to make mistakes, has the right to be pardoned,” she said. “We are in a society that believes in rehabilitation.”

Mr. Breton’s arrival as environment minister had been cheered by activists, who saw an ally in the man who had worked with various environmental organizations.

I know what it is to lose one’s job, to lose one’s apartment, to live while wondering whether there would be a meal on the table at night

In 2010, he called for a moratorium on shale-gas and other hydrocarbon development in Quebec. As minister, he complained this month that “Albertans” wanted to ship their oil to the province without Quebec consent. “Are we masters of our own house or not?” he asked, invoking a famous slogan from Quebec’s Quiet Revolution. He said his concern was for the environmental risks to Quebec.

Mr. Breton was to face a grilling next week from a legislature committee over reports that he had tried to intimidate members of Quebec’s environmental review board, which is supposed to be independent of government interference. Mr. Breton had denied accusations that he demanded cell phone numbers of board members and promised to call the board’s president anytime he was unhappy with its work.

In the end, infractions from his past led to his downfall. First the TVA network reported Wednesday night that he had been evicted from two Montreal apartments for non-payment of rent in 2005 and 2009. According to the report, Mr. Breton still owed his landlords more than $8,000.

La Presse followed with a report that Mr. Breton had been found guilty and fined $100 in 1988 for making false declarations under the Employment Insurance Act. The newspaper also unearthed a 2007 fine he was ordered to pay following a lawsuit by Quebec’s Revenue Department and a 1997 conviction for driving with a suspended license.

Mr. Breton said he intends to remain as MNA for the Montreal riding of Sainte-Marie-Saint-Jacques, where he was elected for the first time in the Sept. 4 general election

André Bélisle, who as president of the Association Québécoise de lutte contre la pollution atmosphérique worked closely with Mr. Breton, decried the minister’s resignation. “It is one of the most depressing scenes for democracy in Quebec,” he told the RDI new channel.