Yifan Wang had just moved to Saint John as an international student when he was swimming with some friends at the Aquatic Centre. To this day, what happened to him remains murky but he was not responding when pulled from the pool and died two days later.
A coroner's jury will hear from witnesses to determine the circumstances and make recommendations to avoid something like this happening again. It will not, however, be assigning blame.
Lawyer Rod Gillis had been representing the family but that was before he got into legal trouble himself and suspended from practicing law in the province.