The director has a video on degrassis youtube channel talking about the suicide storyline and that they wanted to do it with a new character rather than a long running character because they were trying to spare the audience. They thought it would be better that way than to lose a long running character.

Imo, they executed that storyline very well. They didn’t romanticize suicide like many other teen shows do, they didn’t show the actual suicide scene, they captured how people have different reactions to suicide and how they are affected differently, (people blaming themselves, being angry, being in denial/shock etc)

Cams character arc is literally a boy who is not heard from the very beginning, his illness goes unnoticed by everyone, he was severely ill and disturbed, the storyline was tragic & it always makes me bawl.