A Canadian author with local ties to the Valley has transformed her mother’s life story into a National Best Seller. Roxana Spicer is the daughter of Eric and Agnes Spicer and started out as a documentary filmmaker and former CBC investigative journalist. She has travelled to various parts of the world to track down a story, but the greatest story she’s ever uncovered was that of her own mother. She knew from an early age, her mother had a story to tell.
“It seems I’ve been a storyteller all my life,” said Roxana Spicer. “I did my first public reading of original work when I was ten years old, a budding playwright in the village of Netherhill, Saskatchewan. I would take over our family veranda, rig up blankets for stage curtains, and even charge 25 cents a show.
“One new kid arrived on opening night, stayed for the performance, then left without paying. I shot her with my brother’s BB gun loaded with grain. A couple of minutes later, her mom showed up on the doorstep. ‘I understand Jewel owes you 25 cents,’ she said, reaching into her purse and pulling out two quarters. ‘Here’s fifty cents. The second quarter is for you to promise never to play with my daughter again.’ I probably should have been sent to reformatory school for that! But fifty years later, Jewel arrived at this week’s Saskatchewan book launch in Kindersley near Netherhill, laughing about the incident. In fact, she paid for everyone at the table, including my three Spicer relatives who’d made the trip from Swan River.
“In the half-century between these two stage performances, my career has primarily been that of a documentary filmmaker,” said Spicer. “I have travelled the world for all the major Canadian television networks. The story of my mother remains the most compelling story I have ever undertaken.”
This is the first book Spicer has written and published. The story of her mother’s experience in WWII has captivated readers and critics alike.
“The Traitor’s Daughter is my debut into the literary world,” said Spicer. “Since its Canadian launch in late August, my memoir about Mom and our story has remained on the National Best Sellers’ list as one of Canada’s top ten non-fiction books. It has also been included in the Globe and Mail’s Fall book preview of 62 new titles to read this season.
“I first told my mom I was going to write a book about her right around the time I was packing heat in the 80-person village of Netherhill and performing little plays on our veranda in 1965. Mom was a Russian combat soldier fighting Nazis on the Eastern Front during World War Two. She could pitch a handful of kitchen knives across the room and form a perfect pattern around a frying pan hanging on the wall.
“She was the most fascinating woman I ever met. How could I not write a book about her?” asked Spicer. “The Traitor’s Daughter, however, began as a documentary idea for Canadian television audiences shortly after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. It grew into a rich, complex, multi-layered story of a mother-daughter relationship as well as a war story, told through a woman’s very specific point of view.
“Writing a book enabled me to share all those layers with readers. I travelled to ten countries and three continents over thirty years to write this book.
“The Traitor’s Daughter is published by the largest, most prestigious publishing house in Canada,” said Spicer. “Penguin Random House also publishes Margaret Atwood and several other brilliant Canadian voices. It is beyond my literary abilities to describe what a thrill it is to run into Ms. Atwood recording her audiobook in the booth next to mine on the 14th floor of the head office in Toronto.
“The last two years of working with my brilliant executive editor Lara Hinchberger has been the highlight of a fifty-year career. I only wish Lara had been able to join me this week on our book launch in Saskatchewan, back to Netherhill, Kindersley, and Saskatoon, where The Traitor’s Daughter pulled in standing room only crowds. Every book was sold before I stepped onto the stage to read.”
The experience of writing a book, especially one so personal, has been a remarkable endeavour. One that has brought a lot of hard work to life but also something to be proud of, for it was no easy task.
“I have been writing this book one way or the other since I was ten years old,” said Spicer. “The actual full-time writing took seven years; however, I did eight drafts before I was satisfied I’d found the voice’ of the book. It’s a woman’s story, a war story, and the story of Canada’s only officially registered war bride among 47-thousand European women who fell in love with Canadian soldiers and followed their new husbands back to Canada after the war.
“There were two enjoyable experiences in writing this book. My twin brother Victor wrote it was the most profound experience of his internal life to read this gripping, largely unknown story of his mother.
“Then my older brother Harold flew from Calgary with his wife Diana, to be at the national book launch in Toronto, and when I scanned a packed house of book buyers, literary agents, television executives, and Canadian cinema directors, former war correspondents, and a real who’s who of Canadian literati,” said Spicer. “It was the sight of my brother’s eyes welling up and his grin as he stood to join a standing ovation that will remain a real transcendent moment.”
“However, to write a book is to live it. Every minute I was writing about details of my mother’s capture by the Nazis, imagining her terror at the hands of knife-wielding German captors on the Eastern Front during World War Two, relying on her cleverness and resolve to survive, took me into the darkest corners of my imagination. Then, to take these scenes, fleshing out the context of what was happening all around her while resisting the temptation to stray beyond what I knew to be true, to find the right words and to bring the highest standards of journalistic rigour to every sentence, that was a minute-by-minute challenge that lasted seven years.”
Spicer’s novel has been gaining momentum and popularity. Not only is it a best seller, but it has become the topic for many radio and television shows, giving Spicer and her mother an opportunity to talk about it.
“The Canadian public has fallen in love with my mom,” said Spicer. “The Traitor’s Daughter hit number two on the National Best Sellers’ List the first weeks after it landed in Canadian bookstores in late August. The momentum continues.
“The highest-rated CBC Radio program, The Current with Matt Galloway, gave Mom and me half an hour on prime time radio, describing the book as compelling, a page-turner. Zoomer Magazine did a multi-page spread with photos, echoing Penguin’s words: A masterful narration. I appeared on the CBC National, as well as the Bell network radio show, hosted by Richard Crouse.”
Writing this book has been a dream come true for Spicer and the support she has received from people purchasing the book has been overwhelming. The Traitor’s Daughter can be found on bookstore shelves as well as be ordered online.
“The Traitor’s Daughter is now available in all major bookstores across Canada, including Costco,” said Spicer. “Look for it on the Best Sellers’ shelf at Indigo Chapters, as well as McNally-Robinson in Winnipeg and Saskatoon. It’s also available to purchase on Amazon and Penguin Random House Canada.
“Every single book sale keeps Mom’s story alive. This was the promise I made to my Russian mother in Netherhill, Saskatchewan, during the Cold War. Today, it is readers in Swan River and beyond who help me keep that sacred word.”

The art of Ukrainian dance has started up again for the year with the Vesselli dancers enrolled in Ukrainian dance classes. The Benito Vesselli Dance Club has been fortunate to have strong and dedicated instructors to ensure that the art of Ukrainian dance continues in the Valley. Amanda Bulycz and Austin Spencer are both former students of the Vesselli Dance Club and are now instructors.
“I started Ukrainian dancing with Benito Vesselli Dance Club at the age of three,” said Bulycz. “My mom and her siblings danced with Vesselli, and my grandmother was active in the club by sewing costumes, pinching perogies, and volunteering her time with anything else that was needed. My mom later became Vesselli’s instructor, so I guess you can say it was our family tradition to celebrate our culture by joining Ukrainian dance. As I got older, I fell in love with performing on stage, learning more about my culture, and just the overall dance community and dance family with Vesselli.
“As a child, I loved everything about Ukrainian Dance, from performing on stage to getting together with my dance friends every week for practice. I also loved learning new combinations and dance regions. But my absolute favourite part was celebrating and sharing my culture. Ukrainian Dance has this power of emotions and pride behind it that when you experience it, you just want more.”
“I started Ukrainian dancing when I was six years old,” said Spencer. I can’t recall what made me go to my first practice, but I’m sure it had something to do with my mom pushing me to go.
“My favourite part of Ukrainian dance was probably the same as most kids, the competitions. I can remember looking forward to dancing on the big stage at the end of the season. Even though we all got very nervous waiting backstage to go on, the feeling of excitement and pride we felt after a great performance was always an awesome feeling.”
There are so many different styles of Ukrainian dance that can be appreciated. Each style of dance comes from and represents a certain region in Ukraine.
“Every region of Ukraine is so unique and I could list many things from each region that I love,” said Bulycz. “For example, I love the energetic steps, jumps and high kicks from the Volyn region or the fast movements and unique music of the Hutzul region. Every region has its style of steps and music, which keeps not only performing these dances fun but choreographing and instructing each region keeps classes new, interesting and exciting.
“My favourite style of dance would be Hopak. This dance is not only an honour to perform, but I love creating new choreography and instructing Hopak dances. This is one of the main reasons I started my Ensemble: to continue challenging, creating and sharing Hopak with the community. This dance allows dancers to showcase their unique tricks and steps. “You often see male dancers performing incredible acrobatic moves and the female dancers spinning incredibly fast. All dancers move at high speeds, all while being graceful and moving delicately across the stage. Not only is this dance fun to choreograph and perform, it is amazing to experience from the audience as well.”
“For most of my childhood, I enjoyed performing Poltava dances,” said Spencer. “These dances are always high energy with many jumps and kicks thrown into the mix. As I got older, I was always most excited to perform our Hopak. Hopak dances are usually made up of a large group that shows off all the tricks they’ve worked so hard to perfect.”
For both Bulycz and Spencer, the decision to further their Ukrainian dance skills were apparent as they moved on from being the student to becoming an instructor.
“I loved Ukrainian dancing and when I was approached at 16 years old to instruct alongside my uncle with the Hudson Bay Cheremka Dance Club,” said Bulycz. “I knew I wanted to share this love with others. Ukrainian dance is so special to me, and I knew my career wouldn’t and couldn’t end after high school graduation, I wanted and needed to continue to share this love and passion.
“I’m proud to say I have been with Vesselli, whether that’s as a dancer or instructor, since I was three years old and never missed a year. I’m also proud to have been instructing, choreographing and running workshops for many clubs across Saskatchewan and Manitoba for 20 years now, and every year is more exciting than the last.
“Initially, when I started instructing at age 16, I hadn’t taken any courses specific to instructing,” said Bulycz. “I had participated in many workshops and seminars as a dancer but not as an instructor. At that time, everything I knew was taught to me by my past instructors, as well as getting advice from my mom and uncle, who both instructed Ukrainian dance.
“Throughout the years, I jumped at any opportunity to learn and grow as an instructor, whether that’s participating in an Instructor Workshop, studying and continuing to learn more about Ukraine with online courses, or networking with other instructors. Over the years, I have met so many amazing people in the Ukrainian dance world to share ideas, and we learn from and help each other.”
“I jumped at the opportunity to teach dance with the club that I was a part of my whole life,” said Spencer. “I think it’s really important to keep activities like this available in our small communities for all to enjoy. Vesselli gave a lot to my childhood and I’m proud to have the opportunity to pass on the lessons I learned to the younger generation.
“While I don’t have any formal certifications in teaching Ukrainian dance, I lean on my 20 years of experience to help provide instruction. I am hoping to attend some courses in the future to provide the best instruction that I can.”
“I started assisting the younger dancers alongside my Vesselli instructors when I was 14 years old,” said Bulycz. “At age 16, I started choreographing and Instructing with Hudson Bay Cheremka Dance Club and then by age 18, I was instructing Benito Vesselli along with three other dance clubs from Saskatchewan.
“I have enjoyed so many things about instructing Ukrainian dance. I could write a book about the multiple experiences and excitement it has brought. I love creating and choreographing a new dance and watching it come to life. Often, I’m finding music and coming up with new choreography in my living room and you never know if what you are imagining will be able to work with the group of dancers.
“It’s a huge accomplishment when you get to see this come to life on the stage at a competition or year-end concerts,” said Bulycz. “Having dancers receive their highest marks, accomplish their goals, receive scholarships and trophies, their sense of pride and being able to stand backstage and see their faces smiling and beaming as they perform what they’ve been working on all year is a huge accomplishment as an instructor.”
“My first year teaching dance was in 2022,” said Spencer. “At that point, I only helped with the boys in the club, demonstrating technique and helping instruct their boys’ dance. Since then, I have been teaching alongside Amanda each week with the whole club.
“I think my favourite part about teaching dance is seeing how much the kids enjoy performing. It’s hard not to smile while standing backstage and watching them have so much fun and show off all their hard work.”
With the recent events that have stuck in Ukraine, it’s imperative to preserve the culture and representation of the country and its people. Ukrainian dance has traditionally had a strong representation throughout Manitoba and will continue well into the future.
“Just like anything, everything evolves and grows, dancers are performing at higher levels at younger ages,” said Bulycz. “They are accomplishing goals and achieving so much more than dancers before them, but the values behind Ukrainian dance have never changed. We are always learning more about Ukraine and the regions, costuming, steps, styles and more, but the true reason I believe we are all dancing is to share our culture with the world.
“It’s always been important to share Ukrainian culture, but with the war currently taking place, it’s our job to showcase how powerful Ukrainians are and performing any region of Ukrainian dance is one way of doing that. When we step on stage, we are not only representing our club, ourselves, or our instructors, but we are representing Ukraine and showing that we are not going anywhere.
“Ukrainian Dance has always been a huge part of Benito,” said Bulycz. “Vesselli has been around for over 40 years, and while yes we have had our enrolment decrease and increase many times over the years, we are happy to say we currently have 30 children in our club and we continue to grow every year. Not only does Benito have Vesselli for dancers 3 to 18 years of age, but we also have an adult class, Benito Shaker Misto Adult Dancers, which had ten adult dancers last year.
“Also, I have recently started up Liliya Ukrainian Dance Ensemble in Benito, which consists of dancers of all ages, many past or present dancers of Vesselli and Shaker Misto. I would say for a small community like Benito, the art of Ukrainian dance will continue for many years to come.

“The support all three groups receive is truly remarkable,” said Bulycz. “Although Vesselli has always performed at Benito’s Malanka event, 2024 was the first year Vesselli hosted Malanka. Shaker Misto and Liliya Ensemble joined Vesselli in performing for the sold-out crowd between the supper and the dance. The community came together to support Vesselli and also made donations to Ukraine with the Cobblestone Foundation. Vesselli will be hosting Malanka again in Benito on January 11, 2025.
“At Vesselli’s annual year-end concert, we filled the school gym, with many audience members standing as we ran out of room for chairs! I am proud to be from a community that continues to support our Ukrainian culture and dance groups.”
Both Bulycz and Spencer are eager to get into this season with all the new choreography and performances the students will have the chance to learn and embark upon.
“I’m excited to create brand new choreography for all my groups,” said Bulycz. “This is something that I feel is unique and I create new choreography every year for every group I instruct. Every dance I choreograph is made specifically for that group of dancers and is created based on their skills and goals. There is the odd time we will keep a dance or combination from the previous year, but often, I’m creating new choreography to keep all dancers challenged and learning.
“I will be starting practices with Shaker Misto Adult Dancers and Liliya Ensemble in October.
We will be preparing all three groups to perform at Vesselli’s Malanka event in January as well as preparing for competitions and our year-end concert in April and May.”
“I’m looking forward to seeing everyone progress week after week,” said Spencer. “We have so many amazing dancers that love giving their all.”