Today’s Vegetarian Elite will be presented in French, with subtitles in Arabic, Aulacese (Vietnamese), Chinese, English, French, German, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Mongolian, Nepali, Persian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Tagalog, and Thai.

I always told myself that I wanted to inspire people.

Faithful viewers, welcome to Vegetarian Elite! Today and next week, we have the honor of introducing, quite possibly, the most famous vegetarian actor in all of Québec, Mr. Joël Legendre. In our special 2-part program, Mr. Legendre chats with us about how he got his charming good looks…

And the day I stopped eating meat, all that disappeared. I became a tall, good looking, amazing young man!

Realizing his dream through hosting “Opération Enfant Soleil” telethon for the last 10 years…

And the first time I was on the set of Opération Enfant Soleil, I said, “I am doing exactly what I wanted. I am a comedian-missionary.”

And what Joël Legendre’s perfect world would be like…

A whole new world A new fantastic point of view

Deeply devoted as a parent and a champion for children’s charities, it is fitting that Mr. Legendre’s rise to fame began with hosting popular children television shows. Since then, he has starred in numerous other television shows and theater productions including “My Fair Lady” and “Grease.” He recently hosted four consecutive years of the highly rated reality TV show “Occupation Double,” with ongoing endeavors hosting the weekly TV talkshow “Le Téléphone” and a gameshow called “Paquet Voleur.” He is a correspondent and a director; and in 2005, was a language diction teacher for the most watched television show in Canada, “Star Académie.” You can also hear him every morning hosting for the second most popular French radio station in Québec, Rock Détente.

I went around the Expo as everyone here, the Eat Well Expo and Living Green. I fell in love with a little girl of 11 years old named Élisabeth, who works today, in fact, who does demonstrations and sells Emergency products. Halo!

Hi!

How are you doing?

Well.

Hey Élisabeth, you did that all weekend until today.

Well, I did that yesterday.

So what’s your Emergency product? Well, it’s the little powder that you put in water, then it’s energizing.

Are they vitamins? (Yes.) Vitamin C. (Yes, and B.) Vitamin C and B. And why is this vitamin the best of all?

Well, because it’s good.

Because it’s good! You’re cute. Are we going to look like you if we take these vitamins?

Well, certainly.

Oh super! His well known talents in television shows have led him to roles dubbing leading Hollywood actors such as Leonardo DiCaprio in “Titanic” and Chris Rankin in “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.” Mr. Joël Legendre has been sought after by Walt Disney Pictures to be the famous French voice of Aladdin; and also lent his voice for Disney’s Mulan and Hercules. In a rare television moment in 2008, Mr. Legendre was paired in a duet with the legendary Québec singer Mrs. Ginette Reno on the television show “The Hour of Glory.” His soaring performances, along with their rendition of the classic “Un peu plus haut, un peu plus loin,” won him the competition. He was also crowned the winner of last year’s “Match des Étoiles,” the Québec equivalent of “Dancing with the Stars.”

Show business is a pretty exceptional environment because people are very open-minded. So, when you get there and you say that you are vegetarian, most of the time, even on the set, there is always a dish that is vegetarian because it is an environment that has a lot of vegetarians, or as I call them, part-time vegetarians, so people who really do not eat a lot of meat but who are mostly vegetarian.

It is hard to find a more versatile and energetic star in Québec’s artistic community than Mr. Joël Legendre. He was born in the quaint municipality of Sainte-Hélène de Bagot in southwestern Québec where the population never peaks much past 1,500 people. Being brought up on a farm, it is there that he fostered his love for animals and realized he would become a vegetarian for life.

Well, when we are born on a farm, something magical happens. That is, for a child, there is something exceptional about a farm because it means freedom. So I was able to develop my imagination and I did a lot with the help of the animals. There was always a little piglet in a litter that I adopted and that little piglet became my dog. So it would follow me around everywhere on the farm. So I had geese, ducks. I raised rabbits also.

There were cats because we had 3,000 chickens, 13,000 pigs. There were swallows. There were pigeons. I bathed in an animal world. And I used each animal in the play that I would put together about once a week. So, instead of having human friends, because on our street, there were not a lot of kids my age, I had animal friends. We had two horses also. My father loved horses. So whether want to or not, this instils into the child respect for the animals and also the beauty of animals.

So that is how I developed my love for animals. So I grew up knowing that the animal that found itself on my plate had a name, had a personality. In my head, he was talking to me, he was communicating with me. So it was not long before I crossed that out completely and I did not want to eat the animals that I knew.

Although Mr. Legendre had nurtured a love for animals from a very young age, vegetarianism was largely unknown in his childhood. He struggled through bouts of bad health in his youth as he was forced to eat meat. Through personal experience and knowledge being a vegetarian now for over 25 years, Mr. Legendre is convinced that the plant-based diet is the optimal choice for everyone, including children.

At the age of sixteen, when I was finally able to become a vegetarian, then I decided to be one. When I began college, then I really decided that it was over, that I was going to eat what my body needed and I knew that my body did not need meat.

You already knew at that age?

Oh, yes. I knew since the age of five that I did not need to eat meat. I don’t know why, but I always knew. I am really built to be a vegetarian because all the years that I ate meat, I was a puny child, a frail child, I was often sick, gastrointestinal problems and all that. And the day I stopped eating meat, all that disappeared. I became a tall, good looking, amazing young man! But I did not know that it would make me healthier to stop eating meat. All I wanted was to go to bed at night and say to myself, “Oh, I did not kill any pigs today, I did not kill any cows today, I did not kill any chickens.” That is still what I tell myself today. It is perhaps a little childish or an innocent way of thinking, but at night, when I go to bed, I say to myself, “Phew! I did not kill anyone today.”

You go to sleep with your soul in peace.

Yes, my soul in peace, truly.

We will be back in just a moment to learn Mr. Legendre’s secrets in spreading the vegetarian message. You are watching Vegetarian Elite on Supreme Master Television.

So there is a kind of guilt that has emerged now because you must really not live on this planet to have not seen the cruelty that we inflict onto animals. When you eat a pig, well, that pig might have endured 12 hours of agony before dying and finding itself in your plate. So you cannot pretend that you do not know because now, we have seen that and we talk about it a lot.

Welcome back to Vegetarian Elite on Supreme Master Television. Today, we are talking to famous, multi-talented actor, and Québec crowd favorite, Mr. Joël Legendre. As a dedicated vegetarian, Mr. Legendre supports numerous activities that promote this diet as a part of a healthy lifestyle. He is, amongst others, a spokesperson for the Eat Well Expo and Living Green since 2008. Every year, the fair unites under one roof more than 200 exhibitors of products and services related to the wellbeing of the body, mind, soul, and the environment – and vegetarianism is front and center.

Everybody who goes there has a smile on their face because we taste a whole bunch of things, we eat a lot of stuff. We come with our recycled bag and we fill it up with a whole bunch of things. We do our grocery shopping for the year, for the week, for life. We meet wonderful people. There are public speakers who are there also to motivate us. And everything is done, I would say, in a fun way. And I am proud to be a spokesperson for that because I know very well that people who come in will come out transformed. And there is a little bit of myself in that and I am happy because every year, more and more people come to the expo. And more and more people take their health at heart or want to start somewhere.

Mr. Legendre sees that the trend for vegetarianism is accelerating all around the world. He reveals to us his own secret of encouraging conscious living by being a good example.

I always told myself that I wanted to inspire people. So when I have people over for supper, I of course always serve vegetarian food. When I am invited over to their house, I always bring a dish because people are not at ease, they do not know what to serve you. I say, “Cook what you were going to cook for everybody. I will take care of the vegetarian part.” It is my mission and it makes me happy to do it. So I bring a dish and I make photocopies of the recipe, but I do not take them out. But I am convinced that after everybody will have tasted it, they will say “Oh, that is so good. My God, we could prepare this at home. Do you have the recipe?” I have the recipe and then, I become the missionary of vegetarian recipes and I give out my recipe to everyone. And I know that slowly but surely, those people will maybe, once a week, eat a vegetarian meal.

So when will we see a vegetarian cookbook by Joël Legendre?

Very soon to say the truth. Yes, I have signed with an editor. Yes, it will happen very soon.

Oh! And we are awaiting this for next fall?

For the year 2010.

Oh 2010, excellent!

This fall, yes.

I am in the midst of that right now.

What a great idea!

Yes, and it will be a book that will be decadent.

But without meat.

Well exactly, because people find it complicated to be vegetarian and they think that they will not be eating anything.

On the contrary, yes.

So your book will undo that myth.

Exactly. So over 150 recipes easy to prepare, healthy, and especially tasty.

According to Mr. Legendre, vegetarianism not only enables him to remain very active, but it also ensures he’ll be able to appreciate the wonders of everyday life with his cherished loved ones.

But I believe that being vegetarian is, first and foremost, renewing our vital energy. The fact remains that eating meat is demanding on the body, on the digestive tract and all that. But being vegetarian gives me all that energy that I have to be able to do a million things, to sleep about 4 or 5 hours per night, to not need more than that. So it allows me to do a lot of things and to enjoy life; life is so short!

Not that I am running after something, but I like to take advantage of every moment. And I like to be able to see the sunrise in the morning, and in the evening, to go to bed as late as possible to enjoy the day, and to take care of myself to be able to be with my child for as long as possible. So, of course, if I drink two rum and cokes and eat a big steak with potatoes every night, well, chances are that I will not see my child grow as long. For me, it is so important. It is the most important thing.

On next week’s Vegetarian Elite, Mr. Joël Legendre will talk to us about his spirituality and championing the welfare of children. He will also share with us his visions of a perfect world, and the extraordinary story of meeting his adopted son Lambert for the first time, something he had foreseen since childhood.

So right then and there, I knew that that child was my child and that I was his parent. It was really predestined. And I believe that when you adopt a child, it is the soul that seeks out the soul of the parent, that seeks out the soul of the child.

Thank you for joining us today on Vegetarian Elite. Please stay tuned to Supreme Master Television for Between Master and Disciples, coming up next. May your life be blessed with abundant health and inner peace.

Today’s Vegetarian Elite will be presented in French, with subtitles in Arabic, Aulacese (Vietnamese),Aulacese (Vietnamese), Chinese, English, French, German, Hungarian, Indonesian, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Mongolian, Nepali, Persian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Tagalog, and Thai.

Beloved viewers, we welcome you to today’s episode of Vegetarian Elite on Supreme Master Television. Last week, we introduced one of the most famous vegetarian actors in Québec, Canada, Mr. Joël Legendre. On top of being an actor, he sings, he dances, he hosts multiple television programs and a daily radio show, he is a director, and he dubs television and movies.

Among them, Mr. Legendre’s appears on the popular weekly TV series…

Welcome to “Le Téléphone.” As you know, our guests don’t always know who they will be talking with. Even though the match is not always perfect, we can still say that it works fine between them.

By changing my vegan diet for 6 months, I no longer had to stand in line at the pharmacy to buy any medicine. Just by changing what I was eating. When people think that When people think that you absolutely need to eat meat, it’s not true. Even myself, I didn’t lose any muscle mass in my first 14 months of veganism. I became even stronger, performed better as an athlete. It’s a stereotype that people say you need to eat it [meat].

Beyond his versatile talents, what distinguishes Joël Legendre is his wisdom, big heart, and profound sensitivity. He is committed to improve the community and loves to dedicate his talents towards charitable causes. Opération Enfant Soleil, a part of the Children’s Miracle Network, is a non-profit organization that raises funds to help sick children all over Québec.

Every year in June, local stars and numerous volunteers lend a helping hand to put together a grand telethon. From its founding in 1988 up until now, 100% of the proceeds from US$140 million have benefitted various pediatric hospitals in the province of Québec. Endowed with generosity and an unconditional love for children, it is with great pleasure that Mr. Legendre has hosted the Opération Enfant Soleil telethon for the past 10 years.

When I was young, I wanted to be a comedian-missionary. So my mother would say, “You will have to decide: either you leave on a mission or you become a TV star, but you can’t do both.” And the first time I was on the set of Opération Enfant Soleil, I said, “I am doing exactly what I wanted. I am a comedian-missionary.” So with the talent that I received to be able to host, to communicate, I have to go and get the maximum amount of money, to touch people, to meet children.

Because the telethon is not just one weekend, We start in March all the way through to June, touring all the hospitals in Québec, meeting the children to put together video clips of them that will be presented during the telethon, but also meeting the nurses, the doctors, the volunteers. For me, it is 6 months in a perfect world. I only meet people who are devoted, who give their time, who are positive, who try to change the life of another human being. That is my favorite moment and I am not paid to host the telethon and nobody is paid, was ever paid, but we do it because it is gratifying.

These close encounters with children took on a whole new meaning in Joël Legendre’s life in 2004 when he adopted his son Lambert from inner Mongolia. It was as though that moment it had been written in the stars for a long time coming…

Well, since a very early age, I had a recurring dream. I was five or six the first time I dreamt about this. I was in my room and I woke up during the night; it was in my dream. And I went to the door of the house, I opened the door and on the balcony, there was a basket with a baby inside who was holding flowers. I looked at the baby and the baby was black. So I picked up the baby, I raised it and it was my own baby and I didn’t tell anyone. So I dreamt about this very often, so often that my mother ended up buying me a black doll.

And she gave it to me with flowers in a small basket. I was so happy; it was like bringing my dream to life. And when my son arrived… I was in my hotel room and they tell me… They call me and tell me, “Your baby is coming.” “My baby is coming now?” “Your baby is coming. He is in the elevator and he is coming.” So I prepare everything, I set up the camera to film all that. I bring out the toys, I had blown some balloons, you know, the works. And I opened the door and my child was standing there, and what was he holding in his hands? Flowers. He had small wild flowers that he had picked on his way over.

So there was my one and a half year old little boy who was standing there with flowers in his hands. So right then and there, I knew that that child was my child and that I was his parent. It was really predestined. And I believe that when you adopt a child, it is the soul that seeks out the soul of the parent, that seeks out the soul of the child. There is a destiny above and beyond the physical realm. The child does not look like me physically, but we alike inside. The souls are connected. So it is clear that I lived an adventure that was totally spiritual and it still continues today.

Aside from his busy work schedule, charitable activities, and caring for his son, Mr. Joël Legendre devotes his time giving conferences to encourage the youth in healthy life choices. Leading a vibrant vegetarian lifestyle that is also free from intoxicants, he is an inspiration for people of all ages.

I have never been attracted to alcohol or drugs. Nobody has ever succeeded in influencing me into taking a sip of alcohol or a puff of cigarette. It never worked. Because if you find me one single good reason to smoke, I will give you 10,000 dollars right now. There are none. No. I often tried, during the few lectures that I gave in schools and all that, to spot the person that was different in the group because I was someone who was very different in school.

Everywhere, I’ve always been different. And now, I am drawn to people who are different. For sure, whether I like it or not, I identify readily, the short fat kid, the other kid with the acne, the other one that has his hair in his face because he doesn’t wants us to see him. I see that that person will be predisposed, one day or another, to try alcohol or tobacco because he will want to fit in.

So I give my lecture to the group and afterwards, I try to go see the person who felt different within the group and just talk with that person, give them my email address so that we can exchange emails once in a while so that that person feels unique for once in his life. The actor who came, the lecturer who came chose him amongst all the others to be friends with. So, I tell myself that that can help and I have seen it change lives.

So, my God, it is incredible, where does all that wisdom, all that goodness come from?

I was a monk in another life!

Yes, that’s it!

Stay with us, we will be back in just a few moments with Joël Legendre on Vegetarian Elite. We’ll learn what a whole new world would be like according to Mr. Legendre. You are watching Supreme Master Television.

My religion probably lies in my desire to be close to other people, in my desire to love the soul of every human being, in trying to do my best. When I criticize someone, I immediately try to tell myself, “No. Apologize. You have no right to criticize.” I always try to clean my negative thoughts (Excellent.) as I go along so that, again, I can go to bed at night without having hurt anyone.

Your soul in peace.

My soul in peace.

Welcome back to Vegetarian Elite on Supreme Master Television, and our feature on the famous, multi-talented actor and Québec crowd favorite, Mr. Legendre. This year at the Eat Well Expo and Living Green, the Meatless Monday campaign was officially launched in Montréal. It is a campaign that Mr. Legendre endorses with much honor.

The public figures who have also decided to support the Meatless Monday campaign. So, to quickly name them, we have: Patricia Tulasne, Mr. Joël Legendre…

What has kept Mr. Legendre on his 25 year path of vegetarianism when he made the life changing decision at age 16?

My motivation is to be healthy, is to not kill animals, but now, it has expanded because I have a child so I want my child to be able to live on this planet for as long as possible. If you don’t do it for yourself, think about your child who will be stuck with what we will leave for him, a world of garbage. Slowly decrease your meat intake, it is simply good common sense.

We must do something now. And I think that all the land that we use to feed livestock, all the water that we use to feed livestock, it’s 9,000 liters of water to feed only one cow, if all that was better distributed on our planet, I think that everything would be a lot better. And I think that everybody can do that for their planet. And people will realize also that one Monday every week without eating meat is not the end of the world. It can even be fun to prepare new recipes with the whole family, to discover new horizons on our table, to see new colors on the table, to try Indian food, for example, one Monday, to try Italian food the next Monday, to try Szechuan, Japanese food – all cultures have vegetarians dishes.

And our children today come to Earth with an already raised consciousness. It is they who bring the parents up to speed with what they are coming to do here. They are coming to do everything we did not do. So, no child is going to say, “Oh! Meatless Mondays, I don’t want that.” On the contrary, kids will take part in something like this. And incidentally, schools have almost all joined in, and schools are happy to be a part of this movement.

Excellent. In the movie Aladdin, you sing the song “A Whole New World.” What would a whole new world created by Joël Legendre be like?

First of all, there would be stores where they sell candy, you know, candy stores. I would have candies everywhere because I think candies are representative of childhood. They would be good candies though. But for me, there is nothing that makes a child happier than seeing candies. And all the kids could come in, come out, take their candies. There would be enough for everyone. It would be free. All the small children. That would be the first thing.

That’s cute!

Second of all, there would probably be a lot of places for introspection, meditation, just places where you can go in and where it is peaceful. You go in two, three minutes, like a bath of softness, and you come out and you go on with your day. There would theaters on all street corners where people could go. Because I love show business, there would be all kinds of musicals everywhere.

There would probably be even more money, but better distributed throughout the world. There would be food for everyone. And I would be tempted to say that there would be no more illnesses or that there would be no more catastrophes, but I think that the world is perfect the way it is. It allows some people to discover that they have human potential inside of them, something they may otherwise not be able to discover. So I think the world is perfect the way it is, but I would add a few candy stores.

A whole new world A new fantastic point of view No one to tell us no Or where to go Or say we’re only dreaming A whole new world…

The world would truly be a whole new beautiful world if it is filled with people like Joël Legendre. During our time spent with Mr. Legendre, he expressed a message of gratitude to Supreme Master Ching Hai:

Thank you [Supreme Master Ching Hai] for being here and keep up with your mission. The more people do what you do, the more the planet will get better.

Thank you, Mr. Legendre, for living and sharing such bright and uplifting ideals. May you continue to bring light and touch many through your warmhearted endeavors for the welfare of children and animals, as well as progressing vegetarianism.

We have enjoyed your company today on Vegetarian Elite. Please stay tuned to Supreme Master Television for Between Master and Disciples. May your life be graced with many wonderfilled moments and laughter.