HUNTER: Corrections boss on Paul Bernardo move: 'Trust us' (wink ...

Trust us. No, you don’t need to worry about a thing.

Really.

Those weren’t the exact words used by Correctional Service Canada commissioner Anne Kelly but they amount to the same thing.

Kelly appeared before a parliamentary committee on Monday regarding the bombshell transfer of serial killer Paul Bernardo to a medium-security prison.

Kelly assured the assembled pols that there is “absolutely no talk” of moving one of the country’s most reviled monsters to even softer digs. Bernardo was moved in May. People are mightily pissed.

Despite demands to have Bernardo — convicted in 1995 for the slayings of three southern Ontario schoolgirls — returned to Millhaven or some other battle-hardened joint, the government was steadfast.

Nope. That was the corrections crew and we can’t interfere. Kelly noted that Bernardo, now 59, met the criteria for the move.

“I can understand, again, this particular transfer evokes strong emotions,” Kelly said. “And rightly so.”

And she acknowledged that Bernardo is a “psychopath and he committed horrific and unspeakable crimes,” but hey, everyone deserves a second chance.

How did we get here? Dial back the clock to 1976 when the Liberal government of Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau sent the death penalty to the gallows for good. Life in prison was supposed to mean just that … 25 years in the slammer.

But it wasn’t enough for the feds after lying to the Canadian public that life in prison would mean life in prison. Instead, they snuck in a saucy bit of business through the back door called the “faint hope clause”.

That allowed convicted killers to apply for a Hail Mary parole bid. And for many, it worked.

Those were the days before the dangerous offender designation which meant that a life sentence for first-degree murder could be “indeterminate”.

“The system is obsessed with rehabilitation, no matter how monstrous the criminal,” a defence lawyer I know told me. “It trumps everything: Punishment, public safety and the public’s mood mean nothing.

“All of these guys are like little lost lambs to them. I represent these guys in court and can tell you I wouldn’t want them anywhere near my family.”

A survey last March revealed that even nearly 61 years after the country’s final executions — Detroit hitman Arthur Lucas and cop killer Ronald Turpin at the Don Jail — support for capital punishment among Canadians remains strong.

Around 54% of Canadians want capital punishment to return for a first-degree murder conviction — that was up 3% from the year before.

Why is this? It’s a result of what folks see as a system that’s come off the rails: Easy bail, a revolving door justice system, lax punishment and a system that has become woker than thou.

A spiking murder rate and incidents like the Bernardo brouhaha is where you get 54% support for the big adios.

And if there was any doubt about the contempt the system holds the hoi polloi in, ask yourself: How has the Paul Bernardo debacle played out for the families of victims Leslie Mahaffy and Kristen French? Oh, right, them.

They weren’t told of the move until the morning it happened with politicians and bureaucrats later tripping over each other to get the narrative just right.

Late Wednesday, three of Kristen French’s childhood pals asked the House of Commons standing committee on public safety and security why a homicidal maniac’s rights trump theirs.

Tennille Chwalczuk said: “We thought, if he stayed in maximum, we might have some sort of peace inside knowing he was where he belongs forever. And knowing in that moment that it was over … it was just absolute anguish.”

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